Email correspondence regarding the New School at Butterstone: FOI release

Information requested

 

You requested the following:

• all email correspondence between Education Scotland and Perth and Kinross Council regarding the New School at Butterstone.
• all email correspondence between Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate regarding the New School at Butterstone.

This should cover the period between September 1, 2018 and November 30, 2018.

Response

 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information requested because exemptions under sections 30(C) (effective to the conduct of public affairs) and 38(1)(b), (personal information) of FOISA apply to that information.
The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

 

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Sections 30(c) – substantial prejudice effective conduct of public affairs

Exemption 30(C) The effective conduct of public affairs applies to some of the information related to sharing of information between Education Scotland (ES) and the Care Inspectorate (CI) for the following reasons:
Disclosing correspondence between ES and CI or CI and ES in the context of inspection/review and other scrutiny and regulatory functions would prejudice both bodies abilities to perform their public duties and information sharing agreement in line with Section 6 page 7 for their Memorandum of Understanding. If such correspondence was released this could damage effective working relationships between the two scrutiny bodies and inhibit their ability to perform their functions.

This exception is subject to the public interest. On balance it better serves the public interest to withhold this information to preserve the necessary working arrangements in place between ES and CI. It is not necessarily about the sensitivity of this particular information but the impact of the release of it on the future working arrangements required in order to ensure the two bodies can share sensitive information in line with their different scrutiny and regulatory duties.

Section 38(1)(b) - personal information

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some 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.

 

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.

foi-18-03788 Information requested

File type

20 page PDF

File size

1.2 MB