Freedom of Information requests submitted by BBC and political parties: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02033  
Date received: 30 July 2018
Date responded: 28 August 2018

 

Information requested

 

1. How many freedom of information requests were submitted by the BBC or BBC Scotland in the years from the introduction of the ability to request such information and what were the actual costs to the office for providing the responses to those requests
2. How many freedom of information requests were submitted by the Labour Party, the Scottish Labour Party, or their representatives in the years from the introduction of the ability to request such information and what were the actual costs to the office for providing the responses to those requests
3. How many freedom of information requests were submitted by the Conservative Party, the Scottish Conservative Party, or their representatives in the years from the introduction of the ability to request such information and what were the actual costs to the office for providing the responses to those requests
4. What percentage of overall FOI requests in 2017 were the result of the BBC or the above mentioned political parties’ requests.

Response

In response to questions 1 to 3 some of the information you have requested has been provided in the table below.  The Scottish Government does not hold detailed data on the source of FOI requests received prior to 2008.  The figures provided are for the period between 1 Jan 2008, when our electronic tracker system was introduced, and 30 July 2018 (the date of your request).

Requester organisation	No requests recorded between 1/1/08 and 30/07/18
BBC/BBC Scotland	206
Labour/Scottish Labour/representatives	610
Conservatives/Scottish Conservatives/representatives	302

You will wish to note that the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 does not require individuals requesting information to identify whether they represent a particular organisation.  Accordingly, the Scottish Government does not require this information to be recorded.

This means that the information we hold in relation to your request is neither accurate nor complete.

Providing responses to FOI requests are undertaken as part of a Scottish Government employee’s usual duties and therefore a cost cannot be attributed to this. Therefore this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. 

In response to question 4 please see the table below.

Requester organisation	2017 requests as a percentage of total
BBC/BBC Scotland	1%
Labour/Scottish Labour/representatives	4%
Conservatives/Scottish Conservatives/representatives	4.7%

In 2017, the Scottish Government received 3046 requests, of which 723 were recorded as being from researchers, with over 300 from 3 individuals linked to a single opposition party. However, as above, due to the fact that Scottish Government case-handlers are not required to record the organisation to which a requester belongs, the information in the table is neither accurate nor complete.

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