Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, delayed appointment: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02473  
Date received: 12 September 2018  
Date responded: 5 October 2018

 

 

 

Your request for information is in two parts, considering them in turn:
Details of any internal decisions or requests from external agencies that required a response which were delayed by the lack of a minister for further education, higher education and science for several months in 2018.
I enclose some of the information that you requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some the information you have requested because an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why that exemption applies is explained below.

The second part of your request:
Details of any meetings or correspondence (emails, typed or handwritten notes, letters, phone calls, minutes of meetings, documents or otherwise) between senior civil servants, special advisers and Scottish Government ministers on the topic of decisions or requests that have been left unanswered by the lack of a minister for further education, higher education and science over summer 2018.
Our aim is to provide information whenever possible. However, in this instance, the information you have requested is not held by the Scottish Government. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

 

 

Exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information)
This applies to some of the information requested because it contains personal data of a third party, i.e. Scottish Government official names below Senior Civil Service and their direct contact details. This information has been redacted throughout the document which is being released. Disclosing this information 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.

 

 

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