Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence concerning the pausing of new applications to the First Home Fund: FOI release

Published: 4 November 2020
Topic: Housing, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000091486
Date received: 25 September 2020
Date responded: 12 October 2020

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

Information requested

Information from 1 September 2020 to present, copies of correspondence (emails, minutes of meetings, texts, minutes of calls, and/or otherwise) between civil servants and/or Special Advisors and/or Housing Minister Kevin Stewart regarding the decision to temporarily stop applications to the pilot scheme of the First Home Fund.

Response

Attached is a copy of all of the information requested. In two of the cases there are letters to stakeholders which do not fall within the scope of the request, therefore these letters have not been included.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) has been applied because it is personal data of a third party, therefore some names and contact details of individuals have been redacted. 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.

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