Documents and legal advise relating to decision notice (193/2024): FOI release

Information requested

In relation to decision notice (193/2024), you asked for:

1) In regards to the legal advice that was released. When were the last edits made to the documents that were released?

2) Any communications (whatsapps, emails, texts anything) by ministers, spads, civil servants discussing when to release the legal advice, with particular reference to its eventual release day of Saturday the 26th of October.

Response

Part 1
Paragraph 69 of Decision notice 193/2024 set out that there may, within the withheld information, be elements which should not be disclosed, specifically personal data (where it can legitimately be withheld under section 38 of FOISA) and (bearing in mind the subject matter of the original information request considered in Decision 004/2023) information the disclosure of which would constitute, or be punishable as, a contempt of court (and which could, therefore, be withheld under section 26(c) of FOISA). In preparing the information for disclosure most of the documents required redactions under section 38 of FOSIA. The documents were last edited to include the permitted redactions on 23rd October 2024.

You may find it helpful to note that the decision to comply with the Scottish Information Commissioner's decision reference 193/2024 and therefore not to appeal this decision to the Court of Session was taken by the First Minister. Following this decision the documents were prepared for disclosure and were last edited on 23rd October 2024. Final approval of the information for disclosure was sought from the First Minister on 25 October 2024 and the disclosure was issued, in compliance with the Commissioner's decision on 26 October 2024.

Part 2
I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the Annex to this letter.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide asmall  amount of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information.

Section 38(1)(b) – personal data of a third party

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. the 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.

You will also note that some information has been redacted because it does not fall within the scope of your request. This is because it does not detail an discussion of when to release the information required to comply with Decision 193/2024.

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 202400445520 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

160.3 kB