Scotland’s involvement in Exercise Cygnus (2016): FOI release

Information requested

1. A report or summary outlining Scotland-specific findings, lessons learned, or recommendations resulting from Scotland’s involvement in Exercise Cygnus (2016); and/or

2. Internal or intergovernmental communications (including with Whitehall/UK Government departments) regarding Scotland’s role in the exercise, particularly relating to:

• Decision-making responsibilities between devolved and central governments.
• Public health or pandemic preparedness capabilities.
• Coordination or communication challenges, including any commentary on the intergovernmental relationship concerning pandemic planning.

Response

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 an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter. In the interest of only providing information relevant to your request, parts of the released documents have also been marked as out of scope.

In relation to Exercise Cygnus there are no Scotland-specific findings, lessons learned, or recommendations resulting from Scotland’s involvement in Exercise Cygnus in 2016. Scotland’s involvement in this exercise was limited to some officials from the Scottish Government and from Health Protection Scotland (the predecessor to Public Health Scotland). Those officials took part in the inter-governmental part of the exercise only. The Scottish Government took account of the Exercise Cygnus report, as well as recommendations in the report for Exercise Silver Swan, a Scotland-only pandemic exercise held in 2015.

The report from that exercise and a related follow-up event are provided for your information. Exercise Silver Swan: FOI release - gov.scot

I enclose a copy of the information you requested in relation to Scotland’s role in the exercise. This can be found attached to this letter.

ANNEX 1

An exemption applies

Reasons for not providing information

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because it is names/contact details of individuals 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 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.

FOI 202500471234 - Information released - Annex

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