Correspondence between John Stevenson and Shirley-Anne Somerville: FOI review

Information requested

You asked for a review of the Scottish Government response (dated 22 March 2023, reference 202300345249) to your Freedom of Information Request (dated 28 February 2023).

Response

I have been asked to carry out this review (reference 202300349141) because I was not involved in responding to the original FOI request. I have now completed an internal review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for ministerial and official correspondence.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

Conclusions of this Review
This review has concluded that in the original FOI response, some of the information was redacted inappropriately under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA.

1. Some of the information that we previously withheld we are still withholding for the same reason as before – exempt for disclosure under section 38(1)(b).
2. Some of the information that we previously withheld we are still withholding, but for a different reason - exempt for disclosure under section 38(1)(a).
3. Some of the information that we previously withheld we can now disclose. 

This additional information can now be released and is included alongside this response.

	Original FOI 202300345249	FOI Review 202300349141	Example
a)	Some information withheld under section 38(1)(b).	Still withheld under section 38(1)(b).	Personal data of a third party.
b)	Some information withheld under section 38(1)(b).	Now withheld under section 38(1)(a).	Personal data of which you are the subject.
c)	Some information withheld under section 38(1)(b).	Disclosed.	Information in the public domain.

Exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA still apply to some of the information you have requested as it relates to personal information of a third party. The exemptions in section 38(1)(b) regulate the relationship between FOISA, the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the DPA 2018). More information about FOISA section 38 is available on the Scottish Information Commissioner’s website here.

The personal data of a third party was redacted, because disclosure of this data would contravene the GDPR Article 5(1), and the DPA 2018, section 34(1).

We have determined that an exemption under section 38(1)(a) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal information of which you are the data subject, and so it is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Accordingly, we will be dealing with this part of your request as a subject access request. It has now been passed to our Data Protection and Information Assets Team whose contact details are:

Request personal data: form - gov.scot
Data Protection and Information Assets Team
ISIS Office of Security and Information Assurance (OSIA)
The Scottish Government
V Spur
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
EDINBURGH
EH11 3XD
Telephone: 0131 244 8487

All of your personal information will be accessible to you unless it is covered by an exemption.

Your follow-up questions
In your email dated 24 March 2023 addressed to Graeme Logan, Director of Learning in the Scottish Government, you asked the following questions:

• I've noticed that this FOI has not been published on the Scottish Government website, is this due to the exemption that has been applied?
• I would be grateful if you could clarify the purpose of the applied exemption. It would appear that within the FOI response the information on the constituent, their child, personal details, named individuals and public bodies etc has been redacted. I have made the assumption that because the details of the MP requesting information, Mr John Stevenson, has not been redacted then the 'third party' that the exemption has been applied to his personal data, is this correct?
• Did the FOI team cintact Mr Stevenson asking for his consent to publish this FOI response?Can the details of Mr Stevenson be redacted to ensure no third party personal information is contained in the FOI response? Would this ensure the FOI can be published?
• Do I need to submit an amended FOI that requests correspondence between Shirley-Anne Somerville and UK Members of Parliament? I'm assuming that if I do not submit any specific MP names then the FOI response would be completely redacted and that would allow it to be published on the Scottish Government website, is this correct?

These questions are answered below.

FOI 202300345249 was published on 30 March 2023 on the Scottish Government website.

The exemptions applied under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA do not affect FOI publication timelines. As we have a large volume of FOI requests that are answered, there can be delays to publication of responses. Further information about the process for Scottish Government publication of FOIs is available here.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government did not contact Mr Stevenson asking for his consent to publish the response to your FOI request. Further redaction of the information provided did not occur through the process of publication on the Scottish Government website. The information redacted is not personal data belonging to John Stevenson MP.

It is not necessary to submit an amended FOI request, however it is possible to do so if you wish as it is your right under FOISA.

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.

FOI 202300349141 - information released

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16 page PDF

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