Information on the peak fares campaign: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide any correspondences across all four organisations which show how the 'for good' term came about with regards to this campaign and whether any consideration was given to whether it was a truthful statement to be making.

2. Also, can you please confirm whether the Scottish Government, Scotrail or Transport Scotland have paid for any of the advertising and promotion where the name of the SNP party has been included in promotional materials for this, including billboards, TV advertising, social media sponsorship, fake rail tickets and giant fake rail tickets. 

Response

Please find attached to this letter, Annex A, which contains documents, falling in the scope of your request, which we hold on record.

Whilst we aim to provide the information wherever possible, some of the information in the attached Annex has been redacted in line with the following FOISA exemptions:

Furthermore, you may wish to contact ScotRail for copies of internal correspondence they may hold at foi@scotrail.co.uk 

Point 1 of your request

In relation to the second part, asking “whether consideration was given to whether it was a truthful statement to be making”, whilst we aim to provide information whenever possible, on this occasion the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. As such, we hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Point 2 of your request

I can confirm that the Scottish Government, Scotrail and Transport Scotland did not pay for any of the advertising and promotion where the name of the SNP party has been included.

Section 38(1)(b) – Personal data relating to third party

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 and contact details of individuals, 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.

The information in the attached Annex that has been redacted has been clearly marked with the relevant exemption i.e.

Section 30(b)(i).

The remaining information that has been redacted is that which falls into the exemption of section 38 (1) (b) – third party and personal data.

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 202500482827 - Information released - Annex

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