Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) Freedom of Information statistics: FOI release

Information requested

For the last 3 tax year's (23/22, 22/21, 21/20) please provide the total cost of:

1. Total number of staff hired with responsibility for freedom of information requests, (full time equivalent).

2. Total salary costs for staff with responsibility for freedom of information requests.

3. Total for all other costs associated with handling freedom of information requests.

4. Total number of freedom of information requests received, and total number responded with the requested information.

Response

1. For the purposes of responding to this request we have interpreted that the term ‘staff hired with responsibility for freedom of information requests’ refers to new members of staff hired whose core role involves processing and managing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. For the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA), FOI requests are co-ordinated and managed by the Corporate Governance team. Due to the small size of the team, the total cost of hiring new staff would be individual salaries. This is personal data so is subject to the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under section 38 (1) (a) of FOISA applies.

2/3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) does not have the information you have requested. Although the Corporate Governance team are responsible for administration around requests and supporting colleagues to provide responses, colleagues across the whole Agency draft and review responses as necessary. There is no business requirement for officials to record the time spent working on FOI requests as it would mean manually asking each person who is allocated a case, the time spent working on the FOI and any additional resources they may seek to assist them. These tasks are also completed as part of their normal duties along with other tasks appropriate to their role as a civil servant. Given we do not hold details of the time spent by individuals undertaking these tasks we are unable to provide a figure for the total salary cost, or the total for all other costs, in relation to FOI requests. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the SPPA does not hold the information you have requested.

4. The total number of FOI requests received in the tax year 2020/21 was 28. 2 cases were withdrawn so SPPA provided a response to 26. Out of these 26 responses, 12 responses were full releases, meaning no exemptions were applied.

The total number of FOI requests received in the tax year 2021/22 was 43. 7 cases were withdrawn or reassigned so SPPA provided a response to 36. Out of these 36 responses, 22 responses were full releases, meaning no exemptions were applied.

The total number of FOI requests received in the tax year 2022/23 was 48. 0 cases were withdrawn or reassigned so SPPA provided a response to 48. Out of these 48 responses, 27 responses were full releases, meaning no exemptions were applied.

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.