Former Minister for Independence meetings with the Scottish Currency Group: FOI release

Information requested

The former Minister for Independence, Jamie Hepburn, met with representatives of the Scottish Currency Group at least twice (in April and December 2023).

Please provide all briefings prepared for the Minister in advance of these two meetings (and any others which took place), and all minutes/notes/recordings of the meetings themselves.

Response

After conducting searches of our records, the only meeting we have details of Mr Hepburn attending with the Scottish Currency Group was on 5 December 2023. A copy of the briefing and minute of this meeting is enclosed with this letter. I can confirm that we hold no information about a meeting taking place with the Scottish Currency Group in April 2023, or any other time during Mr Hepburn’s role as Minister for Independence. It is possible Mr Hepburn met with this group in a non-Ministerial capacity however, in line with the Ministerial Code, he would not have received any support from the Civil Service for such engagements. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Within the enclosed documents, exemptions under S.30(c) and S.38(i)(b) of FOISA apply to a small amount of the information requested. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex of this letter.

Reasons for not providing information

Section 30(c) (Prejudice to the Effective Conduct of Public Affairs)

The reason why this exemption applies is because releasing information about independence policy development, which does not reflect final decisions taken, would result in inaccurate information on the Scottish Government’s proposals for an independent Scotland being published, thereby undermining the Scottish Government’s ability to effectively and accurately engage and communicate with the public.

This would be likely to impair the Government’s ability to take forward its work on policy development for an independent Scotland. This would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in enabling the Scottish Government to effectively and accurately engage and communicate with the public on its proposals for an independent Scotland without the risk of these proposals being prejudiced by inaccurate information, which doesn’t reflect final decisions taken.

Section 38(i)(b) - personal information

An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is the 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 202400416152 - Information released - Attachments 1 & 2

File type

28 page PDF

File size

420.8 kB