Documentation for meetings attended by Former first Minister and Aamer Anwar and Co: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
Copies of any minutes of meetings attended by both Humza Yousaf and Aamer Anwar, between May 3, 2015, and the point at which Mr Yousaf stood down as first minister.
Details of any meetings (location, purpose, attendees) at which Mr Yousaf and Mr Anwar were both in attendance and for which minutes were not taken.
Copies or records (meeting notes etc) of any specific advice which was given to My Yousaf, with regard to his friendship with Mr Anwar, in relation to declaring this formally with regard to the Sheku Bayoh, Emma Caldwell or Covid public inquiries.
Copies of any information held by the Scottish government in relation to whether Mr Yousaf has ever engaged or employed Mr Anwar as his or his family's personal lawyer.
Response
Copies of any minutes of meetings attended by both Humza Yousaf and Aamer Anwar, between May 3, 2015, and the point at which Mr Yousaf stood down as first minister.
Details of any meetings (location, purpose, attendees) at which Mr Yousaf and Mr Anwar were both in attendance and for which minutes were not taken.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 25(1) (Information otherwise accessible) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below.
Some information is provided in Annex A.
Some information is exempt from disclosure as it falls within scope of the exemption at section 25(1) of FOISA, being already reasonably obtainable and published on the Scottish Government website. The information can be accessed within the response to previously-received FOI requests, which are published here - Correspondence regarding Covid-19 bereaved families: FOI release - gov.scot (where that response relates to a meeting held on 17 August 2021) and here Correspondence and meetings relating to Sheku Bayoh: FOI release - gov.scot (where the response relates to three meetings held on 3 October 2018, 12 November 2019 and 24 February 2020). Please advise if you are not able to access the information available on the internet via the above links, and we are happy under our duty to provide assistance to provide a paper copy.
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.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information in the message exchanges because it comprises 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.
Copies or records (meeting notes etc) of any specific advice which was given to My Yousaf, with regard to his friendship with Mr Anwar, in relation to declaring this formally with regard to the Sheku Bayoh, Emma Caldwell or Covid public inquiries.
Copies of any information held by the Scottish government in relation to whether Mr Yousaf has ever engaged or employed Mr Anwar as his or his family's personal lawyer.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
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