Request:
The total spend, broken down by financial or calendar year, on external legal advice since April 1, 2020. (I.e. 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 to date)
a. Please break this down by the list of associated cases or disputes, and their individual cost. [This section of the request has been narrowed in scope – for only court-mandated payouts]
b. If possible, please provide the final settlement or damages or other court mandated payment cost for any cases during which external legal advice was sought. If it is not possible to link each case to a settlement agreement, please provide the total cost of the settlements or payments.
Response:
| Year | Legal Service Supplier | Sum of Amount |
| 2020-21 | Anderson Strathern LLP | £428,925.12 |
| 2020-21 | Brodies LLP | £5,235 |
| 2020-21 Total | £434,160.12 | |
| 2021-22 | Anderson Strathern LLP | £463,982.75 |
| 2021-22 | Brodies LLP | £396 |
| 2021-22 Total | £464,378.75 | |
| 2022- to date | Anderson Strathern LLP | £561,184.33 |
| Grand Total | £1,459,723.20 |
a. Due to the nature of how we use legal services and how our information is collated, in order to respond to this section of your request it would exceed the £600 threshold. However, we asked if you could narrow down the scope of your request, which you had done (email dated 8 December 2022), so now the request is only for court-mandated pay-outs. After extensive searches through our systems, we can confirm that we do not hold any information (17)(1)(b) under FOISA is applied. This is because Crown Estate Scotland has not had any court-mandated pay-outs within the time frame requested.
b. For the same reasoning as stated above, Crown Estate Scotland does not hold this information (17)(1)(b) under FOISA.
