Humza Yousaf correspondence regarding the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill: FOI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence (either written in letters or in emails presumably) between Humza Yousaf, his ministerial office at the time and the Pakistan Consul General regarding [their meeting on 4 February 2014]. Including correspondence which shows how the matter they met to discuss was first brought up, and how a time to meet, and meeting location was established.

2. Any email or letter written by Humza Yousaf regarding the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill in January 2014.

3. Confirmation of the exact time the meeting took place on February 4th 2014.

4. Any correspondence Humza Yousaf received from Scottish Government colleagues or people from external organisations regarding the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill in December 2013, January 2014 or the days of February 2014 leading up to the vote.

Response

I attach a copy of some of the information you requested - specifically all the correspondence Humza Yousaf received from Scottish Government colleagues or people from external organisations regarding the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill in December 2013, January 2014 or the days of February 2014 leading up to the vote.

An exemption under section 38 (1) (b) (Personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested as this includes the names and contact details of Scottish Government staff.

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 part three of your request a review of diaries shows that the meeting between Mr. Yousaf and the Consul General of Pakistan was scheduled from 17:30 to 19:00 on the 4th of February.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested under points one and two. This is because the Scottish Government does not hold any correspondence which matches your description. It may be helpful to explain that ministerial private offices only hold correspondence for 3 months. This is a key part of ensuring mailbox size remains below the level where the number of items and size of box starts to impact on mailbox functionality. Any emails and documents which form part of the official record are filed in the Scottish Government electronic Records Management System (eRDM) which was searched as part of this request.

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

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FOI 202300344949 - Information released

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