Scottish Government application to Stonewall Workplace Equality Index: FOI release

Information requested

I am emailing you to request all emails/any other form of written communication or document, between the Scottish Govt and Stonewall, regarding any and all social media posts by SNP Government Ministers, which were cited as part of, or in relation to, the Scottish Government's application to be part of Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index, since 2016.

Response

Some of the information you have requested is available from Stonewall Diversity Champions index: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Which provides applications for the Years 2018, 2019 and 2020 Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. There was no 2021 submission due to the pandemic. I have attached a redacted version of the 2017 submission. The submission for the 2016 Stonewall Workplace Equality Index was submitted in 2015 and therefore not within scope. Some of these do indeed include references to social media posts by Scottish Government Ministers. Having conducted a search of our records I have not found any other communications with Stonewall about those particular social media posts.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information in the 2017 submission 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.

The only example of communication between Stonewall and the Scottish Government in regards to tweets made referencing or by SNP Ministers will be found in Sections 8 or 9 Community Engagement of the Workplace Equality Index Submissions referenced in the link above or the attached 2017 version where we were asked to give examples of where the Scottish Government has shown support for LGBTI issues.

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

FOI202100218117 - Information released

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