Your Right to Decide correspondence and meeting information: FOI Review
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
Original Request 202500486711
- 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.
- 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.
- All email correspondence from any Scottish Minister with comments, feedback or suggested edits to the Your Right to Decide paper since 1 March 2025.
- 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. 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.
Response
I have now completed my review of our response of 27 October 2025 to your original information request of 29 September 2025 (our reference: 202500486711).
Your original request
- 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.
- 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.
- All email correspondence from any Scottish Minister with comments, feedback or suggested edits to the Your Right to Decide paper since 1 March 2025.
- How any 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. 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.
Your review request
You requested a review of a number of specific redactions in the response to your original request. These are listed at the Annex to this letter along with the outcome of my review of each, using your original page references. I also attach an overall consolidated response incorporating the modifications I have made to the original response.
Outcome of the review
I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with some modifications.
In carrying out the review I have reconsidered the use of exemptions, and particularly the application of the exemptions and the public interest test, as highlighted in your review request.
In general I consider that the exemptions and public interest tests have been properly applied. While there is considerable public interest in the subject matter of the policy under consideration, the redactions concern exchanges between officials and Ministers and, in my judgement, there is a greater public interest in protecting this private space to allow free and frank exchange of views, and to avoid prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs by compromising the confidentiality and openness of such communications.
However, I have concluded that the publication of the documents under consideration means that there is no longer a requirement to protect exchanges on dates and publication plans (the need for which was recognised by Information Commissioner in his decision 143/2024). I have therefore modified the response to include the relevant dates.
In addition, I consider that a submission previously withheld (attachment 2 of Item 19) can be released with redactions. You will note that the redactions include exemptions under sections 30(b)(i), 30(b)(ii) and 36(1).
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG