Queries regarding the use of secretariat members email accounts: FOI release

Information requested

1) Did the secretariat use a different email for her secretarial duties compared to her previous duties within the Scottish Government?

2) When was the secretariat appointed as secretariat?

3) Did the secretariat continue in any way her previous duties (or work associated with it) which were before she was appointed as secretariat during Mr Hamilton's investigation (from the start to its publication?), or were these duties suspended while she was secretariat?

4) Did the secretariat return to her previous position after her secondment duties as secretariat were complete (i.e. after Mr Hamilton's investigation was complete)?

Response

In response to your first question, the answer is no.

In response to your second question, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 14(2) of FOISA a public authority is not required to comply with a request for information if it is identical or substantially similar to a request which it has already complied with, unless a reasonable amount of time has elapsed between the two requests. This request is substantially similar to your previous request (FOI reference 202500448736) which we complied with on 10 February 2025. For ease of reference, this information is contained in the minute from James Hynd to the Secretariat dated 18 August 2020.

The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on repeated requests at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/FOISA-EIRsGuidance/Section14/Section14Overview.aspx says that in considering whether a reasonable period of time has elapsed between the previous request and the new request, there are two questions which will help the authority:

(i) has the information changed?

(ii) have the circumstances changed?

In this case, the information we hold is the same as at the time of your previous request. We have also considered the circumstances and have concluded that there has been no significant change. For these reasons, we consider that your request is repeated and we are not obliged to comply with it.

In response to your third and fourth questions, an exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested.

Section 38(1)(b) applies to the information because it is personal data of a third party, in this case, the roles of Scottish Government officials below the level of Senior Civil Servant, and other personal information. Disclosing this 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.

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.