Retention procedures for Ministerial correspondence and FOI: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02615
Date received: 31 October 2017
Date responded: 28 November 2017

Information requested

Information in relation to how long the Scottish Government retain ministerial correspondence and if all Freedom of Information requests for ministerial correspondence are run past special advisers or the ministers in question.

Response

The answer to the first part of your question is that we have fixed retention and disposal schedules which are applied to our information. Prior to 2004 all of our information was held in paper format and files which related to ministerial correspondence were destroyed 10 years after the date of the last paper on the file.

Since 2004 we have used an electronic filing system and these particular files are closed 1 year after they are opened and then subsequently destroyed 10 years after closure. It is our intention to publish our Records Management Plan and associated documentation on the Scottish Government website shortly.

The answer to the second part of your question is no.

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