Policy meetings regarding potential Independence Referendum: FOI release

Information requested

I am looking for a list of meetings that the First Minister has attended with civil servants and external stakeholders regarding a) a potential Independence Referendum and b) policy issues relating to the case for Independence between August 2021 and the present day.

Can you please provide a list of dates, the attendees of these meetings and all notes held of these meetings?

Response

Part A
After a search of our records, we have not identified any meetings between the First Minister, civil servants and external stakeholders regarding a potential Independence Referendum.

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

Part B
Our searches have found three meetings within the scope of part B of your request.

Details of the meeting dates and attendees are enclosed in Annex A of this letter.

In relation to attendees, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide a small amount of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party, specifically the names of civil servants below Senior Civil Service, 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.

In relation to notes, this is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The meetings were discursive sessions with externals providing background and commentary on policy issues relevant to independence.

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 202200306028 - Information released - Annex A

File type

2 page PDF

File size

152.9 kB