External legal firms: FOI release

Information requested

Can I ask how much the Scottish Government has spent on external legal firms to advise and handle FoI inquiries for each year from 2012 to 2022 an so far in 2023. Can you in your answer articulate for each year which legal firms have benefitted and how much each legal firm has received. Can you explain what work the external legal firms that have been brought in firm.

Can you also explain what MiCase is, what it does, how much has been spent in developing it and if an external firm has been involved in its operation and development. Can you explain how much has been spent with any external private or public firm or body in its development and separately its annual operation.

Response

Can I ask how much the Scottish Government has spent on external legal firms to advise and handle FoI inquiries for each year from 2012 to 2022 an so far in 2023. Can you in your answer articulate for each year which legal firms have benefitted and how much each legal firm has received? Can you explain what work the external legal firms that have been brought in firm?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Data for this type of spending is not held centrally by a single team within the Scottish Government and therefore would need to be drawn out of returns from multiple teams. An initial search of our corporate records management system indicated that to locate and retrieve the information would breach the upper cost limit.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info.

Can you also explain what MiCase is, what it does, how much has been spent in developing it and if an external firm has been involved in its operation and development. Can you explain how much has been spent with any external private or public firm or body in its development and separately its annual operation?

MiCase is a bespoke digital tool that has been developed by Scottish Government to handle formal correspondence. This includes the management and processing of information requests (FoI), ministerial and official correspondence and complaints. It has been designed to operate within the Scottish Government IT landscape and for related bodies who consume corporate IT systems provided by the Scottish Government, e.g. SCOTS and its electronic record and document management system. Leidos provide the application support element of the service model.

All information regarding the contracts on MiCase is published on Public Contracts Scotland and can be found here: View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland.

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.