Documentation regarding First Minister's trip to Washington DC: FOI release

Information requested

All documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings and analysis, from John Swinney's trip to Washington DC on September 10.

Could you also supply the full cost of the trip, including his expenses, and all expenses of those who accompanied them, as well as a full list of officials who accompanied him? Including hotel and travel costs.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. I have interpreted your request to be referring to the First Minister’s visit to Washington between 7-9 September 2025.

With regards your first question asking for “all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings and analysis, from John Swinney's trip to Washington DC on September 10”, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested to answer the first question in this request would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is because of the combined volume of briefing materials, internal and external communications material, etc. about the First Minister’s visit to Washington.

Under section 12(1) 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, by limiting the scope of the request to briefing material and readouts only or by reducing the range for the trawl of information to specific engagements/activity. 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

With regards your second question asking for “full cost of the trip, including his expenses, and all expenses of those who accompanied them, as well as a full list of officials who accompanied him? Including hotel and travel costs”, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested within a table attached at Annex A. 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 some of this information is subject to exemptions – the reasons why these exemptions apply is outlined below.

Reasons Exemptions Apply

Please note that the enclosed table does not include information relating to the cost of travel for the First Minister and for the Special Adviser who accompanied him on this visit because an exemption under section 27(1) Information intended for future publication of FOISA applies to some of that that information. This exemption applies as details of ministerial engagements, travel and gifts and Special Advisers gifts and hospitality will be published within the next 12 weeks and will be available when published at these links: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot and Special advisers: gifts and hospitality - gov.scot. If you have issues accessing the information online, you can contact us again to request in an alternative format.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of interest in Ministerial and Special Advisers travel. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in minimising the resource implications of the duplication of work when the information is subject to near future publication.

Separately, some of the costs incurred for this trip were in relation to security matters for the First Minister. The Scottish Government does not comment on the First Minister’s security matters. An exemption under section 39(1) of FOISA (health of safety) applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because disclosure would, or would be likely to, endanger the physical or mental health or safety of an individual.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in the arrangements for the First Minister’s security. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the safety of the First Minister.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because some of the information you have requested is the personal data of third parties. 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 202500485559 - Information released - Annex A

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PDF

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101.5 kB