Question reference: S2W-31945
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 22 February 2007
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Current status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 7 March 2007
Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has provided to faith institutions including, but not exclusively, the Church of Scotland, Catholic Church and Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, in each of the last four years, broken down by institution.
Answer
Theinformation requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The only way in which the information sought could beestablished would be to trawl all of the divisions identified on the social inclusionand voluntary issues database and ask them to identify for each of the lastfour years which of their entries are specifically in respect of religious orfaith groups. However, this database contains only general information and itis not possible to extract specific details of grants paid to faith andreligious groups. This would take considerable time and effort and result inwork that would cost well in excess of the disproportionate cost threshold of£600.
In collaboration with analyticalservices division, social inclusion and voluntary issues division is working onhow to improve its database information collection procedures, with a view tobetter identification and recording of specific grant recipients and the purposeto which public funds are being put. Unfortunately, it will be some time beforedata collection and recording arrangements are able to isolate information of the type sought.