Former Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees visit to Murrayfield Stadium: FOI Review

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

Orginal Request: 202400440061

With regard to Emma Roddick’s visit to Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, on 26/8/23:

1. All details and/or minutes of discussions she had during the visit and how they related to refugees.

2. All details held regarding how Ms Roddick’s visit was arranged and who accompanied her.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response (original case reference no. 202400440061) to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

There is no record by minutes or summary of what was discussed during the ministerial visit. Such documents are required to be kept under the Ministerial Code. From the absence of a Section 17 declaration, I infer that this information exists.

Secondly, while a broad description of the process by which ministers may be invited to attend events is provided in the response letter, could you please send me all the correspondence evidencing how Ms Roddick came to attend Murrayfield on this occasion? This would be in accordance with my original request.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modification.

On reviewing this case and information available, the answer to your first question is that whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. No minute or summary has been identified for this event as being held on our electronic Record and Document Management system. Officials aim to provide a short summary note of each sporting engagement, but not in all cases as it might not always be practical or possible to do so, and in this case no note was produced.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. I apologise this was not made clear in our original response to you.

In answer to your second question, on further review of the original case I have now provided the relevant correspondence highlighting how Ms Roddick attended this event on 26 August 2023 on behalf of Scottish Government. This attached in the Annex to this letter.

An exemption(s) under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested, such as civil servant email addresses and names. 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400444819 - Information Released - Annex

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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