Emergency Budget Review discussions: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide a copy of all documents which discuss the rail fare freeze to March 2023, including all correspondence involving ministers and the media office and correspondence with ScotRail or Transport Scotland.
2. Please provide a copy of all documents in the last six months which discuss the Youth Music Initiative, including all correspondence involving ministers and the media office.
3. Please provide a copy of all documents which relate to or discuss the utilisation of funding provided by the UK Government as part of the cost of living announcements in spring 2022. On what date was this money (a) announced and (b) received through consequentials, have any other announcements of funding been made following its receipt, and does any of this funding still remain unallocated?

Please include copies of all correspondence, documents, reports, minutes, letters and emails.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections s.29(1)(a) (policy formulation), s.29(1)(b) (Ministerial communications), s.30(b)(i) (free and frank advice), s.30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views), s.33(1)(b) (commercial interests), and s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained below.

Where an attachment is mentioned in the text of an email and that attachment is relevant to the request, a page break has been inserted, meaning that the attachment is displayed on the page after the email which refers to it.

Where information has been redacted, I have said which exemption has been applied, apart from where section 38(1)(b) (personal information) has been used.

For part 2 of your request – in which you asked for ‘a copy of all documents in the last six months which discuss the Youth Music Initiative, including all correspondence involving ministers and the media office’ – the costs of locating of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The scope for the request was broad enough that internal searches indicated that the time taken to locate the documents and prepare them for release would exceed that permitted by FOISA. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. Requesting information on a specific announcement relating to the Youth Music Initiative might help with this. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

Part 3 of your request asked for ‘documents which relate to or discuss the utilisation of funding provided by the UK Government as part of the cost of living announcements in spring 2022’, as well as specific questions on this funding. The answers to your questions are given in annex B, after the information released in response to your request.

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 - 202200320901 - Annex A

File type

74 page PDF

File size

747.7 kB

FOI - 202200320901 - Annex B

File type

17 page PDF

File size

430.0 kB