Correspondence regarding closure of 218 service: FOI release

Information requested

In relation to the closure of the 218 Centre Bath St.

1. A copy of the last review of the centre received by the government with a date.

2. The dates of any discussions with the Scottish Government about the 218 centre in the past 14 months.

3. Copies of any emails or minutes or cotemporaneous notes of any discussions withinthe scottish Government or between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council HSCP about 218 between february 1st 2023 and January 31st 2024.

4. A note of any guarantees sought from GCC/HSCP on like for like replacement of the residential places provided by the 218 Bath Street centre for women in the justice system with primarily drug problems [2003-2024].

5. A note of any guarantees given by from GCC/HSCP on like for like replacement of the residential places provided by the 218 Bath Street centre for women in the justice system with primarily drug problems.

6. Any record of discussion on the issue of redundancy payments being incurred by Turning Point on the closure of the 218 centre’.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested 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 exemptions under the following sections apply:

• s12: the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit;
• s14(2): repeated request;
• s17: we do not hold the information requested; and
• s38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information.

1. A copy of the last review of the centre submitted to the government by Glasgow City Council with a date.

Under section 14(2) of FOISA a public authority is not required to comply with a request for information if it is identical or substantially similar to a request which it has already complied with, unless a reasonable amount of time has elapsed between the two requests. This request is identical to your previous request which we complied with on 24 January 2024. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on repeated requests at: www.itspublicknowledge.info/sites/default/files/2022-03/BriefingSection14VexatiousorRepeatedRequests.pdf says that in considering whether a reasonable period of time has elapsed between the previous request and the new request, there are two questions which will help the authority:

(i) has the information changed?
(ii) have the circumstances changed?

In this case, the information we hold is the same as at the time of your previous request. We have also considered the circumstances and have concluded that there has been no significant change. For these reasons, we consider that your request is repeated and we are not obliged to comply with it.

2. The dates of any discussions with the Scottish Government about the 218 centre in the past 14 months.

The below table includes the dates of meetings or discussions that Scottish Government officials have  participated in with Glasgow City Council about the 218 service in the past 14 months:

Organisation	Date
Glasgow City Council	27 January 2023
Glasgow City Council	13 April 2023
Glasgow City Council	05 May 2023
Glasgow City Council	01 June 2023
Glasgow City Council	03 November 2023
Glasgow City Council	14 December 2023
Glasgow City Council	09 February 2024

3. Copies of any emails or minutes or cotemporaneous notes of any discussions within the Scottish Government or between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council HSCP about 218 between february 1st 2023 and January 31st 2024.

In this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is due to the time that would be required to search for, sift through and redact the relevant documentation which falls into the scope of ‘copies of any emails or minutes or cotemporaneous notes of any discussions withinthe scottish Government or between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council HSCP about 218 between february 1st 2023 and January 31st 2024’, which includes a significant number of internal and external emails.

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. In order to do so, we would recommend narrowing the type of information sought (as emails, minutes, and notes both within the Scottish Government and externally potentially covers a lot of material), or narrowing the time period.

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: www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

4. A note of any guarantees sought from GCC/HSCP on like for like replacement of the residential places provided by the 218 Bath Street centre for women in the justice system with primarily drug problems [2003-2024].

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

5. A note of any guarantees given by from GCC/HSCP on like for like replacement of the residential places provided by the 218 Bath Street centre for women in the justice system with primarily drug problems.

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

6. Any record of discussion on the issue of redundancy payments being incurred by Turning Point on the closure of the 218 centre.

I enclose a copy of the information you requested in the form of PDF files, as attached.

An exemption applies to some of this information under section(s) s.38(i)(b) (personal information) – this exemption regulates the relationship between FOISA, the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. The exemptions in s.38 are mostly absolute, which means that they are not subject to the public interest test therefore 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 202400401064 - Information Released - Annex

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PDF

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56.9 kB