Serious Organised Crime Taskforce meeting information: FOI release

Information requested

How many times the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce has met in 2025 and if they plan to meet again before the end of the year, and minutes from meetings in 2025.

Response

The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce has met three times in 2025. There are no further meetings planned this year.

The attachment has the minutes from two of the meetings that have taken place this year.

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 an exemption under 17(1)(b), 35(1)(a) (law enforcement) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some the information requested.

The formal note of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce meeting on 13 November has not yet been finalised by the Chair and members. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs will approve the minutes and they are then shared with members, and not formally signed off until the next meeting. Therefore, this is a formal notice under 17(1)(b) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information that you have requested. The next meeting of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce is in February 2026 so you may wish to consider submitting another FOI in late February seeking the minutes of the meeting in November.

An exemption under section 35(1)(a) of FOISA applies to the information because disclosure would, or would be likely to, substantially prejudice the work of law enforcement.

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. However, there is a greater public interest in ensuring that the work of law enforcement is adequately protected. This is essential to prevent, detect or investigate crime without those functions being prejudiced.

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, including names and contact details of individuals, 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 202500493858 - Information released - Annex

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