Diary events for Minister for Parliamentary Business on 18th September 2025: FOI release

Information requested

1. The reasons for Jamie Hepburn MSP’s non-attendance at First Minister’s Questions on 18 September 2025. Please provide details of any meetings, events, or other commitments scheduled during that period.
2. Whether Jamie Hepburn MSP was present in the Scottish Parliament at any point on 18 September 2025, and whether he was working in any official capacity that day. Please provide a copy of his ministerial diary/calendar for 18 September 2025.
3. The date and time when the First Minister, John Swinney MSP, was first made aware of the verbal and physical altercation between Jamie Hepburn MSP and Douglas Ross MSP which took place on 17 September 2025.
4. Any correspondence (emails, WhatsApp messages, briefing notes, or otherwise) to and from the First Minister, the First Minister’s private office, special advisers, and Jamie Hepburn MSP’s office regarding this incident, from 17 September 2025 to 18 September 2025 inclusive.

Response

Request 1

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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

Request 2

Jamie Hepburn was present in the Scottish Parliament on 18 September 2025.

Details of all Ministerial engagements are proactively published by the Scottish Government. This includes diary information of the former Minister for Parliamentary Business. This transparency data can be accessed via this weblink: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/

This is a formal notice that Section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. The information requested will be published within 12 weeks of your request and will be available at the link above. This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Request 3

The First Minister was first made aware of the incident by a point of order immediately following First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, 18 September. The Official Report for the point of order can be found on The Scottish Parliament’s website: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and- committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-18-09-2025? meeting=16580&iob=141559.

Request 4

Please find the information at Annex A.

We are unable to provide some of the information requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information, this is because it is personal data 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 202500485183 - Information Released - Annex A

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