FOI late responses: FOI release

Information requested

• For each month of the last 5 years, what percentage of FOI requests received by the Scottish Government receive a late response (based on timescales set out on FOISA).
• For each month of the last 5 years, the number of FOI requests received by the Scottish Government that receive a late response.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the attached document.

For the purposes of responding to this request I have interpreted that the term ‘FoI requests’ refers both to requests and reviews responded to under FOISA and requests and reviews responded to under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS).

To provide some background – reporting of monthly performance statistics commenced in April 2017 and continues, however, the detail provided has changed over time. The most complete monthly data Scottish Government has is provided until May 2022. Under FOI(S)A we can only provide information that is held up to and including the date a request is received. At the date we received your request 20th June 2022 final performance data for June had not been finalised.

The data provided to answer part 1 of your request begins in April 2017 when the Scottish Government was required to provide monthly performance statistics to the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC). We do not hold any information for the months January to March 2017 inclusive. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold information for these months.

The data I have provided to answer part 2 of your request begins in December 2017 where the specific numbers of cases were provided as part of our reporting process. While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. We do not hold data for the number of requests that received a late response prior to December 2017. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold information prior to this date.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. 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.

You will find additional performance data published at: Freedom of Information (FOI) reporting - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Here you will find monthly performance percentage data figures from April 2017 until May 2022, our most recently completed month. In addition to monthly statistics Freedom of Information performance annual reports are also published here.

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 202200306899 - Information released

File type

Excel document

File size

16.0 kB