Publication - FOI/EIR release

Adult day services and respite services survey: FOI release

Published: 20 June 2023
Directorate: Social Care and National Care Service Development
Topic: Health and social care, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202200326204
Date received: 21 October 2022
Date responded: 18 November 2022

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

The letter and survey (including all questions and requests for information) Humza Yousaf sent to Health and Social Care Partnerships on the 25th of May 2022 about adult day services and respite services; and for you to be sent all the survey responses from Health and Social Care Partnerships and local authorities broken down by area. This includes, but is not limited to, supporting information in narrative form, caveats and raw data sent to the Scottish Government in response to the above request for information.

Response

I include a copies of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for. This comprises the letter and survey issued by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to local authority Chief Executives and Health and Social Care Partnership Chief Officers on 25 May 2022 and all the responses received to the survey subject to the exemption applied below.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 33(1)(b) (commercial interests) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies is explained below.

An exemption under section 33 (1) (b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested because it relates to the reported (by local authority) capacity and availability of day service and respite care places at the time of the survey, in establishments operated by external (independent, third and private sector) service providers in a commercial environment (via the survey returns). Publishing this information about capacity could prejudice substantially the commercial interests of these providers in a competitive market and as such all information in relation to these providers (which are not Scottish public bodies) has been redacted.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, 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 exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release of the external service provider information for reasons of transparency. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that the capacity of external service providers to meet the needs of market demands is not prejudiced in any way as this could be detrimental to the public interest. The data supplied by local authorities in respect of these providers was fully incorporated in the analysis set out in the letter from the Cabinet Secretary dated 13 October 2022 and which can be found here: Adult day services and respite services survey: follow-up letter - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

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.