Your Right to Decide correspondence and meeting information: FOI release

Information requested

1) All correspondence between the First Minister (and his office) and officials working in the Scottish Government’s Constitution Directorate since 6 May 2025. This should include emails, meetings of any kind, letters or phone calls.

2) How many meetings Scottish Ministers attended to discuss the Your Right to Decide paper published by the Scottish Government on 4 September 2025. Please state all meetings that occurred discussing this policy paper where any Scottish Minister was in attendance, the minutes of those meetings, any actions taken as a result of those meetings and when this paper was discussed by the Scottish Government’s Cabinet.

3) All email correspondence from any Scottish Minister with comments, feedback or suggested edits to the Your Right to Decide paper since 1 March 2025.

4) How many meetings have taken place so far to discuss the paper on the ‘economic benefits that independence can bring’ as per the Scottish Government’s commitment in its 2025-26 Programme for Government. Please provide details of all meetings that have occurred so far, including who was in attendance, the minutes of those meetings and any actions taken as a result of those meetings.

Response

Part one

Some of the information you have requested is located at Annex A of this document.

Exemptions under S28(1), S29(1)(a), S30(b)(i), S30C and S33(2)(a) apply to some of the information located in Annex A. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex C of this letter.

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 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.

Part two

Regarding your query involving meetings attended by Ministers, this is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Outwith FOISA, you may be interested to know that the development of the Your Right To Decide paper was the responsibility of officials in the Constitution Directorate. The First Minister was provided with updates via email, and responded in kind with updates which officials incorporated into the paper. These email exchanges and updates are located within Annex A of this document.

Cabinet met on August 26th to discuss the Your Right To Decide paper.

Part three

Emails with feedback from the First Minister, regarding the Your Right To Decide publication, can be found in Annex A of this document under the following items:

• Item 15
• Item 16
• Item 18
• Item 20

Part four

The following meetings have occurred relating the A Fresh Start With Independence paper:

Prospectus meeting- twice weekly in run up to launch (16/9 to 18/10) - Attended by officials across a number of business areas related to the paper contents.

Daily catch up to launch (25/9 to 9/10) - Attended by officials involved in paper drafting and officials from core drafting team & analysts

Weekly catch up - Attended by officials from the Constitution Directorate

Weekly catch up with Briefing team - Officials involved in paper drafting and officials within the Constitutional Directorate Briefing team.

Regular but ad hoc catch ups with our publishers, APS - Attended by Constitution Directorate officials and APS staff

Regular but ad hoc catch ups with Exchequer - Attended by officials drafting the paper and officials from the Exchequer team

10 September - Catch up with Special Advisors

Individual policy meetings (all attended by officials leading on paper drafting)

27 August – Energy officials

7 August - Chief Statistician

12 June and 8 July – Economy officials

20 May – Comms team

As most of the meetings were informal sessions for officials to provide updates on the A Fresh Start With Independence paper, there was no requirement for formal minutes to be recorded. 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.

For meetings where minutes were taken, these minutes can be located in Annex C of this document. An exemption under S.30(b)(i) applies to some of the information. The reason why this exemption applies is detailed in Annex C of this document.

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 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 202500486711 - Information released - Annex

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FOI 202500486711 - Information released - Attachments

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