Details of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs trip to Brussels: FOI release

Information requested

1. The full ministerial diary entry / itinerary for Angela Constance MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs) for 19–21 November 2025 inclusive

2. All briefing packs, background notes, speaking notes, lines-to-take, or any other preparatory material provided to the Cabinet Secretary or her private office in advance of the Brussels visit.

3. Names, job titles, and organisational affiliations of every individual (internal or external) she met or was scheduled to meet in Brussels on 20 November 2025

4. Any agendas, programmes, or running orders for meetings attended on that date

5. Any minutes, notes, read-outs, or summaries (formal or informal) of those meetings, including any emails or WhatsApp/Teams messages summarising outcomes sent by the Cabinet Secretary, her private office, or accompanying officials.

6. All correspondence (internal or external, including emails, letters, Teams/Slack/WhatsApp messages) between 1 November 2025 and the date of this request that refers to the planning, purpose, or justification of the Brussels trip

7. All travel and subsistence expense claims, receipts, or cost breakdowns relating to the trip (including flights, accommodation, taxis, Eurostar/rail, meals, etc.) for the Cabinet Secretary and any accompanying officials or special advisers.

Please provide all recorded information held from 1 January 2020 to the date this request is processed that contains any of the following terms (case-insensitive):

- “grooming gang(s)”- “grooming gangs”
- “Asian grooming gang(s)”
- “Pakistani grooming gang(s)”
- “organised child sexual exploitation”
- “group-based child sexual exploitation”
- “Type 1 child sexual exploitation” (Home Office typology)
- “street grooming”
- any reference to Rotherham, Rochdale, Oldham, Telford, Oxford, Newcastle, or other named UK grooming scandals when discussed in the context of potential Scottish parallels or lessons learned.

Specifically include (but do not limit to):

8. All internal briefing notes, emails, memos, minutes of meetings, or reports that discuss whether a specific Scottish inquiry into grooming gangs / organised CSE is required or has been ruled out.

9. All correspondence (including emails, letters, and message threads) between Scottish Ministers, Special Advisers, or officials and:

- Professor Alexis Jay
- Lady Elish Angiolini
- Any survivors or survivor advocacy groups
- Police Scotland (including the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit)
- Any third-sector organisations (e.g., Barnardo’s, NSPCC Scotland, Victim Support Scotland,

Women’s Aid, etc.) that mentions grooming gangs or the need (or otherwise) for a Scottish public inquiry.

10. Any internal risk assessments, impact assessments, or media handling strategies produced since 1 January 2024 concerning political or reputational risks associated with the term “grooming gangs” or calls for a Scottish inquiry.

11. Copies of any Scottish Government submissions, responses, or correspondence with the UK Government’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) or its successor bodies that refer to organised or group-based CSE.

12. Any data, statistics, or intelligence summaries held by the Justice Directorate on known or suspected cases of organised/group-based child sexual exploitation in Scotland since 2020 (including numbers of victims, perpetrators, ethnicity/religion breakdowns if recorded, and prosecution outcomes).

Response

I enclose a copy of all documents held by the Scottish Government in scope of questions 1-6, concerning Cabinet Secretary Constance’s visit to Brussels - as set out below.

Question	Information held	Attachment
1	Itinerary	1 – p2
2	Briefing pack, speaking note	1 – all
3	Names, titles, organisations of meeting participants	1 – p5, 7, 10, 13-14, 16, 19
4	Meeting agendas	1 – p7, 12, 16, 19, 21
5	N/A – see below
6	Correspondence on planning/justification of visit	2

Under FOISA, the information to be provided by the authority is that held by it at the time the request is received. Meeting notes finalised by 22 November 2025 are not held by the Scottish Government. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested at question 5.

Section 27(1) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested at question 7. The information requested will be published within 12 weeks of your request and will be available at this link: The Scottish Government - gov.scot. This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks.

Points 8-12 are duplicate questions from your correspondence of 22 November – reference number 202500495027 – and will be handled via that Freedom of Information request.

Exemptions under sections 30(b)(i), and 38(1)(b) of FOISA apply to some of the information you have requested. Section 30(b)(i) relates to the free and frank provision of advice. In this instance, briefings for First Ministers Questions are subject to this exemption and content taken from these notes that were included as part of the Cabinet Secretary’s briefing pack have been redacted. Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA relates to personal information. In this instance, contact information, the names of civil servants under Deputy Director grade and of officials from external organisations of equivalent seniority have been redacted.

Section 38(1)(b) 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. Sections 27(1) and 30(b)(i) are 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.

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 202500495024 - Information released - Documents

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