Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence regarding school reopening dates concerning 3 specific local authorities: FOI release

Published: 23 July 2020
Directorate: Learning Directorate
Topic: Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Education, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000044331
Date received: 8 June 2020
Date responded: 6 July 2020

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

All correspondence or documentation (dated from 1st May 2020 till 1st June 2020) on the subject of the date that schools will reopen in Scotland between the Scottish Government and three local authorities (Shetland Islands Council, Orkney Islands Council and Western Isles Council).

Response

The Scottish Government has been working closely with local government representatives COSLA, Solace and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) in the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG), and this has included discussions about the date schools would reopen.
I also enclose a copy of the information you requested, as four PDFs, from communications made to those local authorities on the dates of 21st May 2020 and 29th May 2020. Please find attached: Email 1A dated 21 May, attachment Letter 1B dated 21 May (two further attachments to this, Direction and Direction Guidance, have been withheld as these are available at
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-act-2020-educational-continuity-direction/), Email 2A dated 29 May, and attachment Letter 2B dated 29 May.

Some of the information you have requested is available from
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-act-2020-educational-continuity-direction/.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption applies where the data is the personal data of third parties. In this case, the 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.

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