Withdrawal from Westminster – a New Partnership Agreement: FOI Release

Information requested

Has the Scottish Government or officials begun work preparing the Withdrawal from Westminster – a New Partnership Agreement framework announced by the First Minister at the SNP independence convention in Dundee last month?

If work has begun, how many officials have been assigned to work on the document?

Could you please also provide any internal and external correspondence, including whatsapp messages, emails and memos, that mention the Withdrawal from Westminster – a New Partnership Agreement.

Could you please also include any correspondence from or to UK Government officials, the Scotland Office and any affiliated departments or staff. Ie - have there been any complaints from UK officials?

Response

The ‘Withdrawal from Westminster – a New Partnership Agreement’ was set out in a speech on 24 June 2023. It was explicitly made clear that such work was contingent on the result of the UK General Election and, as such, as of 17 July 2023, the Scottish Government was not working on it, other than officials in the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division undertaking some preliminary scoping of the announcement, should this work become the responsibility of the Scottish Government.

We have identified one document within scope of your request. Some of this document is enclosed in Annex A of this letter. An exemption under Section 29(1)(a) of FOISA applies to some of the information in this document. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex B of this letter.

After conducting searches across our records, no correspondence between officials in the Scottish Government and the UK Government in connection with the Withdrawal from Westminster – A New Partnership Agreement framework has been identified.

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

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.

Information Requested

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