Chief Statistician correspondence to Scottish Ministers: FOI release

Information requested

1. All instances of the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician writing to any Scottish Minister (or their private office) advising them that they should correct the official record of the Scottish Parliament due to a factual inaccuracy since 8 May 2024. Please provide the full correspondence of the Chief Statistician notifying the Scottish Minister in question including any response from the minister, other ministers who were copied in to this correspondence or special advisers.

2. If the Scottish Minister disagreed with the Chief Statistician about the need for a correction, please provide the full correspondence showing their justification for disagreeing and any responses to this justification by the Chief Statistician, other Scottish Ministers or special advisers.

Response

In response to part one of your request, there has been one instance of the Chief Statistician writing to any Scottish Minister (or their private office) advising them that they should correct the official record of the Scottish Parliament due to a factual inaccuracy since 8 May 2024. All correspondence relating to that instance has been previously released as part of a previous FOISA request received by the Scottish Government.

All of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website:

• Information on the statement made by the First Minister on 23rd May 2024: FOI release

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

In response to part two of your request, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for. This is because there has been no correspondence between Minsters, special advisers and the Chief Statistician relating to a disagreement about the need for a correction.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

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.