Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) correspondence: FOI Review

Information requested

Original Request 202500494244

Please may I request the following information:

1. All correspondence between Scottish Government senior civil servants, Scottish Ministers or their special advisers and the Scottish Fiscal Commission regarding its Scottish median income estimates. This includes emails, letters, meetings (and minutes of those meetings), phone calls and instant messages. Please provide such correspondence from 1 October 2025 to the present date.
2. All versions of the SFC median incomes fact sheet that were received by the Scottish Government prior to the final published version and any comments, feedback or edits suggested by Scottish Government officials, ministers or special advisers. This should also include feedback, edits or comments about the document that were provided from relevant Scottish Government officials, ministers or special advisers in advance of seeing any copy of this document (either in draft form or the finalised version). Please provide any relevant material dating from 1 October 2025 onwards.
3. Any actions taken by Scottish Ministers following the publication of this document. This should include any decision to change terminology included in previously published Scottish Government documents or any decision recorded in the EDRM that was made due to the publication of this SFC fact sheet.
4. Whether any Scottish Minister, special adviser or senior civil servant was asked to approve the publication of this document by the SFC. Please provide this correspondence where approval was requested and subsequently granted if so.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

“All versions of the SFC median incomes fact sheet that were received by the Scottish Government prior to the final published version and any comments, feedback or edits suggested by Scottish Government officials, ministers or special advisers. This should also include feedback, edits or comments about the document that were provided from relevant Scottish Government officials, ministers or special advisers in advance of seeing any copy of this document (either in draft form or the finalised version). Please provide any relevant material dating from 1 October 2025 onwards.”

Your review request

"In the request I was refused information in response to my second request on section 30(b)(ii) grounds. The Scottish Information Commissioner notes in his decision 192/2025 that disclosure of information redacted on these grounds would 'inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation'. However, given that the correspondence I am requesting concerns a matter of fact, that is to say information regarding median income levels and where it falls in relation to Scottish Income Tax. These are purely factual issues and any disclosure would relate to matters of fact, not 'views' as the section 30(b)(ii) ground explicitly states. Therefore, I think the public interest test has been incorrectly applied in this instance and I would request that all information captured by my second request is disclosed in full.".

Our response

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted. I therefore enclose copies of two draft versions of the fact sheet received by the Scottish Government from the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC). These were shared with the Scottish Government under the Protocol for Engagement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fiscal Commission, which is published here: Protocol for Engagement with the Scottish Government | Scottish Fiscal Commission which sets out the arrangements for the sharing of drafts of documents to check for factual accuracy. The role of the Scottish Government is solely to provide any feedback on factual accuracy. Draft SFC documents are not considered final until they are signed off by the SFC Commissioners. For further information you may wish to contact the SFC directly. This can be done here Contact | Scottish Fiscal Commission.

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to some of the information requested in these drafts. Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice the SFC’s processes by releasing information that was changed during their quality assurance process and therefore the accuracy of information in the public domain. Publication has the potential to undermine the SFC’s analytical processes and the public understanding of the information. This would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting space for the SFC to develop their methodology and quality assure the information they publish to ensure that it is able conduct this aspect of its business effectively.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to a small amount of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names 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.

​​​​​​​In reviewing the request for “any comments, feedback or edits suggested by Scottish Government Officials, Ministers or Special Advisers”. I have determined that the Scottish Government does not hold any information on comments feedback or edits made. Any changes made to draft versions ahead of publication were made by the Scottish Fiscal Commission. Therefore, 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 section 17(1) of FOISA applies to that information.

This is 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.

FOI 202500498225 - Information Released - Annex

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