Appointment to the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
FOI reference: FOI/18/00439
Date received: 12 February 2018
Date responded: 6 March 2018
Information requested
The following information was requested: "how many applicants were there, how many were shortlisted, and what are the diversity statistics related to" the recent Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland appointment round.
Response
The answer to your first question is that there were 119 legal, 25 medical and 277 general applicants – 421 applicants in all.
The answer to your second question is that 25 legal, 20 general and 24 medical applicants were shortlisted – 69 in all.
I enclose a copy of the information you requested in your third question about the diversity statistics for the appointments. 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 an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained below
An exemption applies
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the data you have requested in relation to diversity statistics. This is because it is the personal data of third parties. Where the number in any category is less than 10, disclosing that information could lead to the identification of individual applicants, which would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. Therefore to preserve the anonymity of those individuals, where any number is less than 10 we have replaced it with "<10".
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
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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