Correspondence and statistics related to Your Right to Decide paper: FOI release

Information requested

I would like the following under freedom of information legislation about the Your Right to Decide paper, released to journalists under embargo on September 3:

•  The amount of money spent on the creation of the paper
•  The number of civil servants who worked on the creation of the paper
•  Any correspondence in relation to the creation of the paper
•  Any correspondence in relation to the SNP event held in Edinburgh on September 4 to launch the paper
•  Briefing notes provided to ministers in relation to the paper.

Response

Part one

An exemption under S.27(1) of FOISA applies to the information requested. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex B of this letter.

Part two

It is not possible to provide you with the number of civil servants who worked on the creation of the paper. This is because this relates to work which was taken forward by civil servants as part of their normal duties supporting the Scottish Government and in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do this. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Part three

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance, the costs of retrieving and providing every piece of information held by the Scottish Government in connection with creating the Your Right To Decide paper would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could narrow the request to a particular part of the paper. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

Part four

After conducting a search of our records, no materials were identified that were in scope of your request.

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

Part five

Most of the information you have requested is enclosed in Annex A of this letter.

Exemptions under S.27(1) and S.38(i)(b) of FOISA apply to a small amount of the information requested. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in Annex B of this letter.

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 202500483180 - Information Released - Annex A and Annex B

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