Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence concerning meetings with Homes for Scotland: FOI release

Published: 4 August 2020
Topic: Housing, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000045945
Date received: 11 June 2020
Date responded: 13 July 2020

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

Information requested

From 1 May 2020 to present details of the meetings that the Scottish Government have had with Homes for Scotland, outlining the dates of the meetings, who was in attendance and any records of the meetings (this could include minutes, notes/records of meetings, internal briefings prior to or after the meeting and/or otherwise).

Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and Homes for Scotland (this could include: email, letter, internal briefing, note, note/record of phone calls or otherwise).

Any internal communications within the Scottish Government about Homes for Scotland and/or the construction and housebuilding industry (This might take the form of emails, attachments, typed or handwritten notes, letters, notes/records of phone calls, texts or instant messages, minutes, briefings or other).

Response

Part 1 and 2

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. A small amount of information has been redacted because it is the personal data of a third party, names and contact details, and disclosing this information 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.

In addition, some of the information you have requested in part 2 of your request is available from either the Scottish Government or the Homes for Scotland websites. Where this is the case I have provided a link on the spreadsheet. 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 websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Part 3
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has required regular dialogue with the housebuilding industry and the wider construction industry. Unfortunately in this case it would take staff more time than considered reasonable to retrieve and provide all the information requested.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. This could be done by making your request more specific by identifying a topic of
conversation or a specific organisation or sector of the wider construction industry that you are most interested in. Further, in the instance of the third part of your request the costs of locating, retrieving and providing some of the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.