Correspondence relating to the safety and policing of TRNSMT Music Festival: FOI release

Information requested

(i) Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and Police Scotland relating to the safety and policing of TRNSMT 2025.

(ii) Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and any other police force or policing organisation, including counter-terrorism police, relating to the safety and policing of TRNSMT 2025.

(iii) Any correspondence from the last twelve months between the Scottish Government and the organisers of the TRNSMT festival.

(iv) Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and the organisers of the TRNSMT festival relating to the safety and policing of TRNSMT 2025.

(v) Any briefings, papers, or other documents relating to the band 'Kneecap' or the TRNSMT festival that were prepared following the First Minister's statement of 28th April.

(vi) Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and any police force or policing organisation, including counter-terrorism police and Police Scotland, relating to or mentioning the band ‘Kneecap’ that is not otherwise captured in (I) and (II).

(vii) Any other held documents or correspondence relating to or mentioning the band 'Kneecap'.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. The individual details are:

i, ii, iv and vi - section 17(1)

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because there are no records of the Scottish Government contacting Police Scotland or other police forces regarding this issue. The relevant council, as the licensing authority, has responsibility for event licensing - including safety and compliance with regulations.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

iii - section 38(1)(b)

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, i.e, names/contact details of individuals outwith the Scottish Government 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.

In addition staff details below Deputy Director level and Special Adviser are also redacted under para 82 et seq (“ Names of public authority employees”) of FOISA section 38 guidance, 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. Section 27(1) – information intended for future publication.

v, vii - section 27(1)

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to a small part of the information requested because it applies to current or completed FOI requests which we intend to publish within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable, rather than include this information in this release, to allow it to go through the planned publication process. The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses at Freedom of information (FOI): document collection - gov.scot

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of falling within scope. However, this will be met by our planned publication and we also see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the scheduled publication date. To include this material might delay release and/or increase the overall cost above the limits for such action.

In this case however, to assist in your request and avoid the wait for publication, I enclose a response to an earlier FOI request which matches the criteria under v and vii above.

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 202500468282 - Information Released - Annex

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