Independence spending in the Budget documentation: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
All documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received, briefings, analysis, about independence spending in the Budget, from the last two months.
Response
We have interpreted your request as relating to materials regarding independence spend in the 2025/26 budget.
Searches were conducted across the email records of certain Scottish Government officials within the Constitution directorate, who would be most likely to hold relevant information, some of which is enclosed in Annex A.
We narrowed the searches to key individuals as in order to fully comply with your request we would have had to conduct searches across the email records of every Scottish Government civil servant, which would not be possible to do within the upper cost limit of £600.
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 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.
An exemption under S.29(1)(a) (Formulation or development of Scottish Government policy), S.30(b)(ii) (Free and frank exchange of views) and S.30C (Otherwise prejudice effective conduct of public affairs) applies to some of the information requested. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex B of this letter.
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.
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