Website access: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02326
Date received: 2 October 2017
Date responded: 15 November 2017

Information requested

Number of instances SG PCs accessed following websites in 2016 (or latest available full month if this would go over cost limit).

1. How many times website access has been blocked to restricted sites e.g. pornographic sites on Scottish Government minister's devices in total over the last three years, broken down by year?

2. Also, how many times Scottish Government minister's devices have accessed the Scottish Conservative website in each month of 2017? Similarly, for the Scottish Labour party website?

3. How many times have Scottish Government ministers devices accessed Wings over Scotland in the last three years, broken down by year?

Response

The Scottish Government policy is to retain logs of web access for six months. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested for the year 2016 or all of the months of 2017.

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. In this instance, the cost of checking and examining the volumes of data required to provide an accurate response would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

The Scottish Government policy of retaining every instance of internet access by all staff generates vast amounts of web access log data. The amount of data generated is so large that it has to be archived,compressed and backed up on a monthly basis to ensure that retaining these audit records remains cost-effective. To recover the last six months of our records individually and report on it in the granular manner you have asked for would take the effort in responding to your request above the £600 cost limit.

However, we have reported on the last full month of accessible records (September 2017), and the responses to your questions relating to that period are set out as below.

Q1. How many times website access has been blocked to restricted sites e.g. pornographic sites on Scottish Government ministers devices in total over the last three years, broken down by year?

A1. The number of recorded blocked sessions to restricted sites by Scottish Government Ministerial devices for the latest available full month of September 2017 is Nil.

Q2. Also, how many times Scottish Government minister's devices have accessed the Scottish Conservative website in each month of 2017? Similarly, for the Scottish Labour party website?

A2. The number of recorded sessions of access from Scottish Government devices for each of the requested web sites for the latest available full month of September 2017 is set out below:

• Scottish Conservatives (www.scottishconservatives.com) – Nil
• Scottish Labour (www.scottishlabour.org.uk) – Nil

Q3. How many times have Scottish Government minister's devices accessed Wings over Scotland in the last three years, broken down by year?

A3. The number of recorded sessions of access from Scottish Government minister's devices for of the requested web site for the latest available full month of September 2017 is set out below:

• Wings Over Scotland (wingsoverscotland.com) – Nil

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