Correspondence between Scottish Ministers and ScotRail regarding Iona: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202500471003

All correspondence since 1 May 2025 between Scottish Ministers (or their private offices) and Transport Scotland and/or ScotRail regarding “Iona”, the AI generated announcements on ScotRail trains.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for the following:

"All correspondence since 1 May 2025 between Scottish Ministers (or their private offices) and Transport Scotland and/or ScotRail regarding “Iona”, the AI generated announcements on ScotRail trains.”

You subsequently submitted a request for review on 15 July 2025 expressing dissatisfaction and specifically the four points below:

• “I believe the public interest test has been improperly applied in relation to Section 29(1)(b), Section 30(b)(i) and Section 30(b)(i)……..”
• “One redacted aspect of the briefing refers to passenger feedback. There is a further argument for publication of this information.”
• “We are told the Cabinet Secretary is "very concerned about this". This has not been reported publicly. Given this is now in the public domain, the public has a right to know the nature of these concerns, which appear to have been redacted.”
• “On a separate note, information has been redacted in a wholesale manner (for instance, the entirety of Bill Reeves's email). This is not in the spirit of the legislation”.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

As part of my review, I have revisited the information that was withheld and each of the exemptions that were applied to that information, specifically exemption section 29(1)(b), section 30(b)(i) and section 33(1)(b) outlined in your correspondence.

I have also considered whether the public interest test has been appropriately considered for each of the exemptions, section 29(1) and section 30(b)(i), determining whether adequate rationale has been given to the information that is withheld.

Taking each of the points in turn:

Point 1: The application of the public interest test to section 29(1) and section 30(b)(i) of FoI(S)A that you have expressed dissatisfaction with, I am content that Transport Scotland has adequately applied the test in each case, recognising that whilst there is public interest in releasing information however, the original case handler explained why this information was being withheld. To this end, I reconsidered the application of the public interest test and am content that it has been applied appropriately.

Points 2 and 3: When considering the original information that is in scope of your request I have established that there is additional information that can be released. This includes information which relates to “Passenger Feedback”.

Point 4: I have revisited the specific email you have referenced and established that there is some information which can now be released. This is the content of the email itself which was previously withheld under section 30(b)(i) of FoI(S)A. Please note that some information remains withheld under section 38(1)(b) – Personal information which did not form part of this review.

I have provided the additional information for release as an attachment containing the original information that was released to you and marking the additional information as highlighted in green for ease of identification. If you require me to provide this to you highlighted in an alternative format please do not hesitate to request this.

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 202500475906 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

339.2 kB