COVID-19 UK Four Nations meeting over Christmas period: FOI release

Information requested

1. What medical advice were the SNP given in November when agreeing to Christmas mixing for all four nations?  Did the SNP challenge the Conservative Government in Westminster on this plan? If so, what evidence is there?
2. Has the SNP made any challenge to the Westminster Conservative Government on the international travel restrictions and quarintine rules since March 2020?

Response

1.  I have attached Annex A which includes 2 emails in scope relating to your first set of questions.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names/contact details of individuals, and  disclosing it 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.

Email 1 – UK CMO’ s view on proposals for Christmas. This is an email from the CMO to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport giving an update on what would be announced from a UK 4 Nations Meeting for the Christmas period.
Email 2 – UK CMO’ s views on Cabinet Paper on Christmas. This is an email from the CMO to the First Minister on the final version of advice agreed between the UK CMO’ s on the Cabinet Office paper on Christmas.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.
The Scottish Government has also published evidence on their website which can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-19-framework-decision-making-assessing-four-harms-crisis/

Coronavirus (COVID-19): ONS infection survey results 24 December 2020 - Results from the ONS COVID-19 infection survey from 24 December 2020:  https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-ons-infection-survey-results-24-december-2020/

This publication is part of a collection: Coronavirus (COVID-19): infection survey: https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-infection-survey/

Coronavirus (COVID-19): local authority indicators and Levels - 22 December 2020: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-allocation-of-levels-to-local-authorities-22-december-2020/

Outcome of the 7th review of the allocation of levels to local authorities, alongside evidence and analysis informing these decisions.

This publication is part of a collection: Coronavirus (COVID-19): protection levels - reviews and evidence: https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-protection-levels-reviews-and-evidence/
Additional evidence can also be found on the Health Protection Scotland website which can also be found at: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/publications/

2.  Following clarification, you confirmed that you are looking for a response to this question from a SNP political party perspective.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because we cannot answer on behalf of the SNP. While the Scottish Government is currently led by Ministers, selected from MSPs who represent the SNP, as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government and the SNP are wholly separate legal entities.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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.

FOI -202100145803 - Annex A

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