Minutes from meetings regarding transgender policies: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all meetings about transgender policies held/attended by Kaukab Stewart and minutes/notes from these from the last three months?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received, including internal, minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, and analysis, about the Scottish Government's Supreme Court defeat to For Women Scotland over the definition of a woman, from the last month?

3. How much money has the Scottish Government paid out in relation to this court case, with a breakdown of this? Could you supply how much money the government still owes in relation to this, with a breakdown of this and could you reveal why the money hasn't been paid yet?

Response

I will respond to each of your numbered asks above separately below.

1. As requested, I enclose a copy of minutes from meetings about transgender policies attended by Kaukab Stewart in the last three months.

An exemption(s) under section s.38(1) of FOISA applies to some of this information you have requested. Personal information, such as names, telephone numbers and email addresses, have been redacted to protect people's identities.

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.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. 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 specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. 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.

3. Following its judgement, the Supreme Court found the Scottish Government liable for For Women Scotland’s legal costs incurred in the Supreme Court and the Court of Session. There are well established processes, set by the Courts, to agree the payment of a successful party’s legal costs. The Scottish Government has committed to publish the final costs associated with the judicial review after the payment of For Women Scotland’s legal costs have been agreed.

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 202500493459 - Information Released - Minutes

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