Publication - FOI/EIR release

Strategic review of Chief Science Officer (CSO) core funding units: FOI release

Published: 25 February 2021
Directorate: Chief Medical Officer Directorate
Topic: Health and social care, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000107193
Date received: 30 October 2020
Date responded: 25 November 2020

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

Information requested

You asked for:

1. I am requesting under the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) that you provide me with all the minutes of meetings prior to the completion and publication of the report strategic review of CSO core funding units.

2. Please also provide copies or a link to the responses received from the consultation.

Response

1. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex. We therefore enclose a copy of most of the information you have requested.

Annex
i. The Scottish Government does not have the information
Section 17(1) of FOISA (information not held) requires the Scottish Government to notify you if it does not have the information you requested. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

It may be useful to know that the independent expert panel convened to conduct the strategic review of CSO core funded research units met on two occasions. The first meeting was a conference call held on the 8th April 2019 to discuss and agree the process the Panel would follow, and the information that should be gathered in order to address the terms of reference. The second occasion was a meeting in Edinburgh held over the course of the evening of 6th and all day on 7th June 2019.
A summary of the review panel discussion is detailed in the report “Report of a strategic review of CSO core funded research units by an independent expert panel”. A copy of this report has been provided for your information.

ii. An exemption applies
An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption applies in accordance with The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). Where this exemption has been applied personal names have been *redacted* from the information provided.

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.

Documents provided
Consultation Response – Chief Nursing Office
Consultation Response – Child and Maternal Health Directorate
Consultation Response – Council of Deans
Consultation Response – Cancer Research UK (CRUK)
Consultation Response – CSO Public Engagement Group
Consultation Response – Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Consultation Response – Glasgow Caledonian University
Consultation Response – Health and Social Care Analysis
Consultation Response – Health Care Quality and Improvement
Consultation Response – Health Economics Research Unit (HERU)
Consultation Response – Health Services Research Unit (HSRU)
Consultation Response – Mental Health Directorate
Consultation Response – Medical Research Council (MRC)
Consultation Response – NHS Fife
Consultation Response – NHS Health Scotland
Consultation Response – NHS Lanarkshire
Consultation Response – The Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit (NMAHPRU)
Consultation Response – Public Health Intelligence
Consultation Response – Queen Margaret University
Consultation Response – Scottish Government Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser
Consultation Response – Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU)
Consultation Response – University of Aberdeen
Consultation Response – University of Dundee
Consultation Response – University of Edinburgh
Consultation Response – University of Glasgow
Consultation Response – University of St Andrews
Consultation Response – University of Stirling
Consultation Response – University of Strathclyde
Strategic Review of Core Funded Units Report

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.