Rural GPs and rural communities in the Highlands and Islands: FOI review

Information requested

Copies of all electronic correspondence involving ministers and/or officials, and other stakeholders, from the last six months in which there is discussion about the impact of the GP contract on rural GPs and rural communities in the Highlands and Islands.

Response

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

I have reconsidered information that was withheld because of exemptions under Section 29 (1) (a) – (formulation or development of government policy) and have concluded that we should release additional information.

I have reconsidered the public interest test and concluded that on balance, the public interest lies in favour of releasing this information.

However, some information remains withheld because of exemptions under Section 29 (1) (a) because on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

The information we are now providing you with is as follows and is included at the end of this letter:

• Core briefs from February 2019 around GP Recruitment and Retention and the wider Multi-Disciplinary Team
• Emails relating to a Public Petitions Committee Response

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information being released because it is personal data of a third party, ie names and 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-19-01413 - Core Briefs

File type

1 page PDF

File size

71.0 kB

FOI-19-01413 - Emails

File type

3 page PDF

File size

210.8 kB