Stone of Destiny: FOI release

Information requested

“Q) This month (Jan), Scottish Cabinet papers from 2008 disclosed that Alex Salmond was given a fragment of the Stone of Destiny / Stone of Scone by Prof Sir Neil MacCormick in 2008.

Minutes dated Sept 16, 2008, said: "The First Minister said that he had met with Professor Sir Neil MacCormick who had presented him with a fragment of the Stone of Destiny as a personal gift. The Permanent Secretary agreed that the fragment need not be surrendered to Historic Scotland."

Mr Salmond has since said he does not possess the fragment and does not know what happened to it. He said he thought it had been put in an "Aladdin's Cave" cupboard for gifts, either in Bute House or St Andrew's House.

Could you please send me all communications relating to the Stone of Destiny and / or its potential whereabouts since this story emerged on January 1, 2024 - including any emails sent by ministers, special advisers and Scottish Government officials, or any other communications.

Please could this include any communications with the Commissioners for the Safeguarding of the Regalia.”

Response

A copy of some of the information you requested is provided in Annex A attached to the covering email.

Reasons for not providing information

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because it relates to personal data of a third party i.e. names and contact details of individuals, 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.

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.

FOI 202400391875 - Information Released - Annex A

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