Correspondence between Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills and Dr Pauline Stephens of General Teaching Council Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

All communications between the Education Secretary/department of the Scottish Government and Dr Pauline Stephens (or equivalent staff member) of GTC Scotland from 1 June 2025 - 12 December 2025.

Response

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested in the below annex.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide any personal information because an exemption(s) under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. These are names and contact details of people below Senior Civil Service level (or equivalent), working in public sector bodies and, where identifiable, job titles. Details of external people have also generally been exempted, and redacted, on similar grounds, in cases, where they would be readily identifiable, and disclosing it would contravene data protection principles. 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. 

Again, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, we are unable to provide some information because the following exemptions apply and the public interest in applying the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Section 30 (1) (b) would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially (i) the free and frank provision of advice; or

(ii) the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.
Section 29 (1) (a) formulation or development of government policy.
Section 28 Information intended for future publication (1) Information is exempt information if -
(a) it is held with a view to its being published by -
(i) a Scottish public authority; or
(ii) any other person,
at a date not later than twelve weeks after that on which the request for the information is made;
(b) when that request is made the information is already being held with that view; and
(c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information be withheld from disclosure until such date as is mentioned in paragraph (a).

More details of where the exemptions have been applied and the public interest considerations are detailed in the below table (Annex).

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 202500498124 - Information released - Annex

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