Average response times for an FOI request: FOI release

Information requested

1) The mean, median and maximum response times for an FOI to the Scottish Government over the last 12 months.

2) The number and percentage of FOIs that were referred to Special Advisers for each month of the last five years.

3) The mean, median and maximum response times for all FOIs referred to Special Advisers over the last 12 months.

Response

Attached is a copy of most of the information requested.

For the purposes of responding to this request I have interpreted that the term ‘FOI’ refers to both requests and reviews that have been responded to under FOISA and requests and reviews that have been responded to under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS).

Part 1 of your request: "The mean, median and maximum response times for an FOI to the Scottish Government over the last 12 months."

To provide some background on the approach undertaken and how the answers were obtained - there were 5038 requests received in the previous 12 months, that have either been responded to or are still requiring a response at the time of your request on 19th April 2023. In order to answer your question specifically:

• The average ‘mean’ response time for an FOI to the Scottish Government over the last 12 months is 22 days
• I have interpreted the ‘median’ as being the case at the midpoint of the data used. The case which indicates the median or midway point of the data is shown to have been completed and a response issued in 10 days
• The maximum response time for an FOI response to the Scottish Government over the last 12 months is 256 days

Part 2 of your request: "The number and percentage of FOIs that were referred to Special Advisers for each month of the last five years"

I am providing some additional information which might be helpful to you regarding the process that we follow in managing FOI requests. Our decision making criteria sets out the process we use when a FOI/EIR request is received by the Scottish Government. The FOI Unit will make an assessment as to whether the request requires Ministerial approval (where cases will be referred to Special Advisers before a Minister will make a decision) or where an official will make the decision on releasing information using the criteria for decision-making.

The sensitive or routine field is recorded within our case management system. In order to provide a response to your request, we have used this field to identify requests for information where cases are requiring a Ministerial decision. There may be cases where the field has not been updated to reflect a change in the handling of the request from sensitive to routine or vice versa as this can change during the life cycle of a FOI/EIR. There may also be routine cases where Special Advisers are asked to comment on handling - rather than FoI - matters. We do not monitor the number of those requests.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested as the data I have provided to answer the second part of your request begins in December 2019. This is because we do not hold any data previous to this date covering the months of April to November 2018, and we do not monitor the number of routine cases sent to Special Advisers for handling advice. This is notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold information.

Where there are months with no cases which have initially been assessed as requiring Ministerial approval these have been shown as "0" as we hold the information but the answer is that according to the data there were no cases assessed as requiring Ministerial approval in these months. The process of routinely recording the sensitivity of cases was implemented in July 2021.

I have compiled all the data for part 2 in the spreadsheet which is attached to this response.

Part 3 of your request: "The mean, median and maximum response times for all FOIs referred to Special Advisers over the last 12 months"

In the previous 12 months there were 493 requests that were assessed as requiring Ministerial approval as per the criteria outlined above. The date range used to establish cases received in the previous 12 months has been from 19th April 2022 to the date of this request 19th April 2023. I have used these cases to provide the answers to this part of your request and specifically:

• The average ‘mean’ response time for all FoIs requiring a Ministerial decision in the last 12 months is 41 days
• I have interpreted the ‘median’ as being the case at the midpoint of the data used. The case which indicates the median or midway point of the data for all FoIs requiring a Ministerial decision in the last 12 months is shown to have been completed and a response issued in 20 days
• The maximum response time for all FoIs requiring a Ministerial decision in the last 12 months is shown to have been completed and a response issued in 239 days

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI202300352495 - Information released

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Excel document

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14.1 kB