A) The total cost of Kenny MacAskill's trip to Canada in January 2009 to attend a series of Burns related events.
The total cost of the trip was £ 9,550.30
* Final costs for driver and car in Toronto are not currently available
B) A list of Scottish Government staff that travelled with Mr MacAskill to Canada, along with their job titles.
Gillian Tucker, Private Secretary to Cabinet Secretary for Justice, and Robin Naysmith, Scottish Government Counsellor, travelled with Mr MacAskill during this visit. Mr Naysmith is based in Washington DC.
C) A breakdown of the cost, including flights, accommodation, expenses accrued during the trip.
The total costs mentioned at part A can be broken down as follows:
Flights: £7,986.45
Accommodation: £1,155.90
Expenses: £407.95
D) All correspondence between Kenny MacAskill and Fergus Ewing during January 2009 relating to the knife crime summit held at Holyrood in January.
Two documents fall within the scope of the above request:
- An e-mail dated 2 December 2008 from Mr MacAskill's Private Office to Mr Ewing's Private Office
- An e-mail dated 7 January 2009 from Mr MacAskill's Private Office to Mr Ewing's Private Office. As this e-mail covers a variety of other issues I have extracted the relevant parts of the e-mail
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From: Keane M (Mary) on behalf of Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Sent: 02 December 2008 06:46
To: Minister for Community Safety
Subject: FW: Public Petitions Committee debate on knife crime: 23 January 2008
Just in case you haven't got this - can't see recipient list.
Mary
Mary Keane
APS/Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Ext. 45141
__________
From: Fergus.Cochrane@scottish.parliament.uk [mailto:Fergus.Cochrane@scottish.parliament.uk]
Sent: 01 December 2008 08:51
Cc: Franck.David@scottish.parliament.uk; Zoe.Tough@scottish.parliament.uk
Subject: Public Petitions Committee debate on knife crime: 23 January 2008
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This message has been received from an external party and
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Further to my letter of 12 November extending an invitation, on behalf of the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee, to the knife crime debate on 23 January 2009 I can now confirm that the debate will take place in the Parliament Chamber here in Edinburgh.
A more detailed programme is currently being prepared which will identify the topics to be discussed at each of the four sessions along with other information about the debate. I will circulate this to you after 16 December (the Public Petitions Committee has a mtg that day at which it will further consider the arrangements etc for the debate).
For those still to indicate attendance on 23 January can I make a gentle reminder that responses are due in today, 1 December, so grateful if you could get responses in ASAP so that we have an idea of participants, numbers etc.
As before, please contact me if you have any questions at all.
_______________________________________________________
Fergus D. Cochrane, Clerk to the Public Petitions Committee, Directorate of Clerking and Reporting, TG.01, The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP
fergus.cochrane@scottish.parliament.uk
( 0131 348 5186
Fax: 0131 348 5088
RNID Typetalk: 18001 0131 348 5186
www.scottish.parliament.uk
www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/index.htm
Please do not print this e-mail unless absolutely necessary - save energy and paper!
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ANNEX C
Extract of an email of 7 January 2009
Subject: FW: SSM NOTE - 6 January
Knife Crime Event - Public Petitions Committee 23 January
Mr Ewing queried why the Committee was meeting on a Friday. Action - to confirm reasons. [Mary K] [Update- liaised with Graham in Mr Ewing's office who confirmed the event was different to a routine Committee meeting. Graham confirmed he would brief the Minister]