Cabinet Secretary for Justice's proposed working group on misogynistic harassment: FOI release

Information requested

All correspondence between the Scottish Government and Engender regarding the Cabinet Secretary for Justice's proposed working group on misogynistic harassment from 23 April 2020 to 4 February 2021.

Response

I attach a copy of most of the information you requested.

While it is our aim to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to some of that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party (the personal names and email addresses of junior Scottish Government officials), 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.

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.

Also, an exemption under section 30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This has been applied to Annex A of the invitation letter which includes the draft remit of the Working Group. The draft remit was shared with the group for the purposes of deliberation and agreement and thus, the remit has been further updated and is no longer reflective of agreed remit. This remit has been/will be published on 04/03/2021 and can be found: Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as the annex sets out a draft remit of the Working Group over the next 12 months. However, this is outweighed by the public interest, to ensure members of the working can frankly exchange views, including discussing draft documents. The remit has now been published on the Scottish Government website. 

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FOI -202100150598 - Annex A

File type

7 page PDF

File size

554.6 kB