Correspondence with the Former Permanent Secretary: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202500447462

Please could you send me copies of all the correspondence of Judith Mackinnon, Nicola Richards, James Hynd, Liz Lloyd, John Somers, Barbara Allison & the Private Secretary 1 to Leslie Evans from 19 October 2018.

Including a copy of the email referenced in media articles as shown below:

From The National article:
In an email titled “options” from October 19, 2018, seven weeks after Salmond began his judicial review, Mackinnon told Richards that Mrs B had “raised her complaint directly with me”.

From Herald article:
In an email headed “options”, dated 19 October 2018, seven weeks after Mr Salmond launched his judicial review, and seven weeks before the Government conceded defeat, Ms Mackinnon told Ms Richards that Mrs B had “raised her complaint directly with me”.

Response

Your request for review expresses dissatisfaction with the application of section 25(1) (information otherwise accessible).

You asked for further information on why the date of the email provided at the link in our initial response was redacted, who redacted it, and on what authority it was changed.

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Your request

Please could you send me copies of all the correspondence of Judith Mackinnon, Nicola Richards, James Hynd, Liz Lloyd, John Somers, Barbara Allison & the Private Secretary 1 to Leslie Evans from 19 October 2018.

Including a copy of the email referenced in media articles as shown below:

From The National article:
In an email titled “options” from October 19, 2018, seven weeks after Salmond began his judicial review, Mackinnon told Richards that Mrs B had “raised her complaint directly with me”.

From Herald article:
In an email headed “options”, dated 19 October 2018, seven weeks after Mr Salmond launched his judicial review, and seven weeks before the Government conceded defeat, Ms Mackinnon told Ms Richards that Mrs B had “raised her complaint directly with me”.

Request for review

In your request for a review, you ask for a copy of the above refenced email which specifically includes a date of 19 October 2018. You also ask for further information on why the date on this email was redacted, who redacted it, and on what authority it was changed.

Response to your review

In conducting my review, I have considered the application of an exemption under section 25(1) (information otherwise accessible) when responding to the part of your initial request which specifically asked for a copy of the email referenced in media articles you detailed.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

I am satisfied that an exemption under section 25(1) would continue to apply to most of the information you have requested to the extent of the information which has been published. However, I have determined that this exemption would not apply to all of the information in this email because, as you rightly note, some information has been redacted from the publication and is therefore not accessible.

As a result, I have considered the information which is not otherwise accessible (redacted) in the publication afresh.

As you note, the date of the email is in the public domain following references made to it in newspaper articles. I have therefore provided a copy of some of the information you requested.

I also note that the published email has the email address for Nicola Richards redacted. Generally, email addresses of Scottish Government officials are redacted when an official is below the grade of Senior Civil Servant. Therefore in this case I have provided a copy of the email with this redaction removed.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information requested because an exemption under section 26(c) of FOISA (prohibitions on disclosure: contempt of court) applies to the information because disclosure might identify complainers who are subject to an order under the Contempt of Court Act 1981. The order was made by the court in the context of the Judicial Review proceedings. 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.

In your request for a review, you also asked who performed these redactions and on whose authority.

In terms of your request for information on the redaction made, I can confirm that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government were asked to provide information to the Scottish Parliament, who subsequently performed further redactions on the material ahead of its publication on their website. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

You may however wish to contact the Scottish Parliament on www.parliament.scot/about/informationrights/requesting-information who may be able to help you.

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 202500453749 - Information released - Document

File type

PDF

File size

23.1 kB