Criteria for responding to FOI requests: FOI release

Information requested

1) It is a requirement that SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff clear FOI responses from civil servants in the FOI unit?

2) How many FOIs were received by the Scottish Government in 2024, and how many of these were cleared by SPADs and/or FM's chief of staff before release?

3) What is the purpose of the following email address: foi.spadsPO@gov.scot . Which SPADs have access to this email inbox, how many emails did it receive in 2024 in relation to FOIs and is it a requirement of civil servants in the FOI unit to submit all FOIs to this email address?

4) If not all FOIs are sent to SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff to be cleared, please explain the decision-making process which results in SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff being asked to or not to clear a FOI response.

5) Do any SPADs work within the FOI unit within the Scottish Government?

6) I would like to known if this FOI itself was cleared by SPADs or the FM's chief of staff before release.

Response

For the purpose of responding to this request, I have interpreted the term 'FoIs' refers both to requests received under FOI(S)A and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS) for the purpose of your response requests for reviews have been excluded.

1) It is a requirement that SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff clear FOI responses from civil servants in the FOI unit?

No. Neither SpAds nor the FM’s Chief of Staff clear responses.

Decisions about disclosure in response to routine requests are decided by officials of appropriate seniority, normally C Band (Grade 7) or above. Sensitive cases require Ministerial clearance.

2) How many FOIs were received by the Scottish Government in 2024, and how many of these were cleared by SPADs and/or FM's chief of staff before release?

The Scottish Government received is 5542 requests in 2024.

None of these requests were cleared by SpAds or FM's Chief of Staff, as noted in the previous answer clearance is provided by Officials or Ministers.

3) What is the purpose of the following email address: foi.spadsPO@gov.scot.

The foi.spadspo.gov.scot mailbox is staffed by Civil Servants within the Special Advisers Private Office.

It is a general administration mailbox for FOI related communications. 

Which SPADs have access to this email inbox,

None. Special Advisers do not have access to this mailbox. 

How many emails did it receive in 2024 in relation to FOIs

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The
reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. The foi.spadspo.gov.scot is a working inbox and does not keep a record of emails received and only holds emails up to 3 months at a time. To obtain an accurate number of all emails sent to the inbox it would require a full trawl of all colleagues of Scottish Government who may interact with the mailbox throughout the year and therefore would exceed the cost limit. 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. For example, you could specify the subject matter you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government or timeframe. This will allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted, however, please note due to how interactions with this mailbox occur even with a more specific request for information, the cost limit may still be exceeded.

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: https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask

Is it a requirement of civil servants in the FOI unit to submit all FOIs to this email address?

No.

4) If not all FOIs are sent to SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff to be cleared, please explain the decision-making process which results in SPADs and/or the FM's chief of staff being asked to or not to clear a FOI response

The information you have requested is available online and under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, I am providing a link to the document to assist you; the Criteria for Decision Making sets out how we deal with requests received into the Scottish Government. This criteria was agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Information Commissioner in November 2018 and defines the roles and responsibilities of different parties, including special advisers. It makes clear that special advisers are not decision makers in handling requests but do have a role in providing views and comments.

Neither SpAds nor FM’s Chief of Staff clear responses.

5) Do any SPADs work within the FOI unit within the Scottish Government?

No.

6) I would like to known if this FOI itself was cleared by SPADs or the FM's chief of staff before release.

No. Neither SpAds nor FM's Chief of Staff clear requests.

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.