Former Minister for Housing correspondence regarding Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC): EIR release

Information requested

1/ All correspondence received by or communicated from the Minister Paul McLennan between February 1 2020 and May 6 2025 relating to RAAC. This includes all forms of communication available, not limited to but including, email, text messages, whatsapp or conventional mail.

To note, the timeframe for this request was later revised to 1 February 2025 to 6 May 2025.

2/ All correspondence between Minister Paul McLennan and Special Advisors between April 28 2025 and May 6 2025. This includes all forms of communication available, not limited to but including, email, text messages, whatsapp or conventional mail.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested (see 'annex' and attachments to this reply). This includes, for completeness, responses to some correspondence sent to Mr McLennan on the subject of RAAC but not responded to by him directly. For further information potentially of interest you may also to visit the website of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, including the webpage of the Committee session where Mr McLennan gave evidence: Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 11th Meeting, 2025 | Scottish Parliament Website. Briefing from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) is also available via the same weblink.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under regulations 10(4)(d), 10(4)(e) and 10(5)(f) of the EIRs apply to some of the information you have requested. Reg 10(4)(d) allows a public body to withhold information which is not yet complete or in the course of completion, 10(4)(e) allows for the withholding of information that relates to internal communications and Reg 10(5)(f) concerns information where there was no obligation for that information to be provided to the authority or consent to its disclosure.

These exceptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the above exceptions. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of the ongoing public, and media interest in RAAC. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the free flow of internal exchanges and communications concerning advice, data gathering, completion of documentation and, more generally, administrative processes relating to the operation of a Ministerial Private Office, all of which form part of formulating an appropriate response to dealing with RAAC. In addition, in respect of Reg 10(5)(f), we consider that disclosure of information provided by third parties under no obligation to do so would substantially prejudice the likelihood of external organisations supplying information, particularly on issues of sensitivity, in future.

In addition, an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (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 exception 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 exception.

In respect of the second part of your request - for all correspondence between Minister Paul McLennan and special advisors between April 28 2025 and May 6 2025 relating to RAAC - while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore this part of the request is refused under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about exchanges relating to RAAC between Mr McLennan and Special Advisors, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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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.

EIR 202500464892 - Information released - Annex

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