Scottish Property Federation event: FOI request
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
Please provide details of the Scottish Property Federation event attended by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, Kate Forbes on March 4 March 2020.
Specifically:
1) · Pre meeting briefing(s)
2) · Any speech or pre-prepared words
3) · Agenda
4) · Venue and list of attendees
5) · Minutes or notes from meeting
6) · Post meeting action points
7) · Cost of any dinner/lunch provided and who paid for it
Response
With regards to the first part of your request, I have attached the briefing pack (Annex A) that was provided for Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy.
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 supporting official who attended the event with the Minister, 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.
For the second part of your request, I have included the draft speech (Annex B) which the Minister was provided with. We do not hold the final version of the speech as it is common for the Minister to make minimal changes to a speech on the day of the event. In relation to item 3 and item 4 of your request; some of this information is included in Annex A including the agenda and details of the venue.
We do not hold some of the information that you have requested. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
As we did not organise the event, we did not receive a full list of attendees and therefore this information is not held by the Scottish Government. Furthermore, as this was an annual conference that the Minister was attending to provide a speech, and not a meeting, there were no official actions, minutes or notes taken by officials and therefore for this information is not held by the Scottish Government.
Finally, in relation to part 7 of your request, as this event was organized by the Scottish Property Federation, the Scottish Government did not organise or cover the costs for the lunch and therefore do not hold information regarding to the costs of this. 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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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