Ministers pay talks: FOI release

Information requested

1. Information relating to all meetings held in which Ross Greer MSP and Kate Forbes MSP were present since January 1, 2022, including, dates, times, locations, minutes and actions resulting from the meeting. Please exclude all Scottish Parliament committee meetings, all party groups, and meetings of the whole Scottish Parliament.

2. Information relating to all meetings held in which Ross Greer MSP and John Swinney MSP were present since January 1, 2022, including, dates, times, locations, minutes and actions resulting from the meeting. Please exclude all Scottish Parliament committee meetings, all party groups, and meetings of the whole Scottish Parliament.

3. Information relating to all meetings held in which Ross Greer MSP and Ben Macpherson MSP were present since January 1, 2022, including, dates, times, locations, minutes and actions resulting from the meeting. Please exclude all Scottish Parliament committee meetings, all party groups, and meetings of the whole Scottish Parliament.

The PDF document containing your request was titled “FOI Scottish Government Ministers Pay talks”. We have used this as the basis for our searches for relevant information in conjunction with the three numbered requests set out above.

You made a further request related to Ministerial correspondence, which we have processed and will respond to separately as Ref: 202200315607.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for.

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. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter. We are also unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under FOISA apply to that information. These are:

Section 29(1)(a) (formulation or development of government policy)
Section 29(1)(b) (Ministerial communications)
Section 30(1)(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice)
Section 30(1)(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation)

These exemptions are subject to the ‘public interest test’. 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 exemptions. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemptions. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, including encouraging the provision of free and frank advice from officials and a similarly free exchange of views between Scottish Ministers and members of the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group for the purposes of deliberation and development of policies such as the draft Resource Spending Review (RSR), Scottish Budgets and associated public sector pay policy. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions with members of
the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on aspects of this policy while still under discussion and development. To release briefing material and notes of meetings would be likely to inhibit substantially the free and frank exchanges between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group required during the development of key Government initiatives. This would undermine arrangements designed to allow the Scottish Government and the Green Group to seek to achieve maximum cooperation and collaboration on the broadest range of the Government’s responsibilities, as set out in the Bute House Agreement.

Section 38(1)(b) – Personal Data. This exemption applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details, 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. At several points in the Annex, names and other personal data have been marked as redacted.

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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 202200315611 - Information released

File type

5 page PDF

File size

169.8 kB