In another part of the very large FoI request, this question was asked:

Q2: A breakdown of the amount that Bute House has spent on receptions, including the total cost of food and drinks, from 2014-present (broken down by year and month).

The answer minus the full breakdown was:

Q2: Since 2014, there have been 83 receptions at Bute House, costing a total of £71,985.47 . This includes receptions hosted by other Scottish Government Ministers, as well as the First Minister. Engagements and events are an essential part of official Government business. These important events support charities and good causes, promote Scottish business and the economy, and pursue and support the development and discussion of key Scottish policies.

This is only part of a comically humungous FoI request trying to find anything at all that could be bad news for the SNP or any part of it, made by, I’m guessing, BBC Scotland or the North Britain branches of Labour, Tories or LibDems, or any ‘Scottish’ newspaper or Scotland in Union or whatever they’re called. Either way, I feel sure they have ratty wee features. You can have a good laugh at the whole thing here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-18-03733/

However, 83 functions over 5 years, at a total cost of almost £72 000, means that the average cost was less than £900. It’s not enough. How can we influence people if we don’t buy enough fancy goodies for them? For comparative purposes, can we do an FoI on Governor Mundell’s spending?