Correspondence between the lead official on FOI requests 18/02304 and 18/02305: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03196
Date received: 30 October 2018
Date responded: 27 November 2018

 

 

You asked for any correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes or any other documents) between the lead official on FOI requests 18/02304 and 18/02305 and/or Scottish Government ministers and/or the SG FOI Unit and/or special advisers regarding the response to those FOI requests. Information should include: a detailed timeline (with dates) of when the lead official contacted ministers/special advisers (and vice versa); any notes or comments or suggestions offered by ministers or special advisers to the lead official; any input from the SG FOI Unit; any advice or comments from ministers/spads rejected by the lead official; any advice or comments from ministers/spads accepted by the lead official; any correspondence (as defined previously) on the use of exemptions; any correspondence (as defined previously) on material to be redacted; any information on delays to the FOI responses; any information on who received the FOI to clear, when they responded and what they said; and any information on delays to the FOI responses.
 

 

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the Annex to this letter. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.  The reason why we don’t have the information is explained below. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

 

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. 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. This information is shown as redacted within the Annex provided.