Scottish Government unauthorized disclosures impact statistics : FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, please provide the number of fines or any other disciplinary actions taken against ministers, civil servants or employees of the Scottish Government for unauthorized disclosures from 2020 to 2025
Response
We have interpreted your request to mean the disclosure of official information without proper authorisation or the disclosure of personal information resulting in a data breach.
In terms of your specific question in relation to Ministers, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold information regarding any fines or other disciplinary actions taken against ministers for unauthorised disclosures from 2020-2025. In addition, it might be helpful to note that Scottish Ministers are appointed under the statutory framework provided for under the Scotland Act 1998 and are therefore not employees of the Scottish Government. All Ministers are required to adhere to the terms of the Scottish Ministerial Code.
In terms of your specific question in relation to employee and civil servants, please note that we can only provide information in relation to cases within the core Director-General areas of the Scottish Government (see Annex A attached). If you wish to obtain information about civil servants in other areas, you will need to contact those organisations directly.
In relation to disciplinary action against employees, between the period 1 January 2020 and 22 April 2025, there was one case which related to the unauthorised sharing of an individual’s personal information.
There have been no fines issued against the Scottish Government for unauthorised disclosures.
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