Petitioner expenses for Former First Minister case: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for “In the matter of Salmond, Petitioner it has been reported that Scottish Ministers have paid to the Petitioner expenses in excess of £500,000. I request the account of expenses intimated on Scottish Ministers in respect of this matter.”

Response

1. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption under section s.30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies is explained in the Annex to this letter.

Reasons for not providing information - Annex
An exemption applies

An exemption under section s.30(c) (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to the information you have requested. This is because the information was obtained by the Scottish Government in confidence in the negotiations for settlement of the expenses of the judicial review. To disclose the information would cause or be likely to cause substantial prejudice to the ability of the Scottish Government to correspond with legal firms where information would ordinarily be shared by those firms in confidence.

Exemption s.30(c) is subject to the ‘public interest test’ under section 2. The Scottish Government’s position is that the public interest in permitting the effective conduct of the Scottish Government in relation to litigation and other exchanges in a legal context with legal firms outweighs the public interest in disclosure of this information.

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.