FOI – 000333 Money spent on travel (HTML)

Date received – 13 December 2022 | Date responded – 13 January 2023

Request

This is a Freedom of Information request for the amount in GBP (£) spent by your organisation and its subsidiary organisations on first class train or aeroplane travel, business class aeroplane travel, premium economy aeroplane travel and chauffeur vehicle journeys between December 1st 2021 and November 30th 2022.

Please also provide the same data for journeys undertaken between December 1st 2020 and November 30th 2022.

Please present this information in tabular format as a .xlsx file, with the date, cost and a brief description of the purpose of each journey that contributed to the total figure for each year.

Response

I can advise you that we have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information as appendices:

Please find attached Appendix 1 – Air bookings NSS 1st December 2020 - 30th November 2022, for the information that NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) hold in relation to first-class air travel, business-class air travel and premium-economy air travel.

Please find attached Appendix 2 – Rail bookings NSS 1st December 2020 - 30th November 2022, for the information that NHS NSS hold in relation to first class rail travel.

As requested, we have provided this in Microsoft Excel format and it is a consolidated date range from 01 December 2020 until 30 November 2022.

Under Section 17 of the FOISA, an organisation does not have to provide that information if it does not hold that information. NHS NSS does not hold any information in relation to chauffeur driven vehicles. This is due to their being no record of any being booked with in the timeframe.

We have removed any personal identifiable information from the spreadsheet in line with Section 38 (1) (b) of the FOISA and the Caldicott Principles.

Travel bookings are authorised based on the best value tickets available, which means that, in some instances due to a lack of availability, first/business class is the only/cheapest option.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

If you require any further information, please contact the Head of Information and Cyber Security, Digital and Security, within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.

Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.