Publication - FOI/EIR release

Communications with Scottish Council for Independent Schools: FOI release

Published: 14 February 2018
Directorate: Learning Directorate
Topic: Education, Public sector

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

FOI reference: FOI/17/03042
Date received: 13 December 2017
Date responded: 16 January 2018

Information requested

Copies of any communication between the Scottish Government and representatives of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools from January 2015 – present and excluding materials related to Scottish Government working groups unless those groups relate specifically to the operations of private schools (so, for example, the CfE groups would not be included).

Details of any meetings between the Scottish Government and representatives of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools from January 2015 – present

Response

I enclose copies of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance some information has been redacted from the enclosed documents because exemptions under 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained below.

Details of meetings that have taken place between Scottish Government and representatives of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools from January 2015 – present can be found at the following:

http://www.scis.org.uk/about-scis/transparency/

Reasons for not providing information

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the redacted information because it is the personal data of third party, i.e. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998.

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.

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