Minutes from Serious Organised Crime Taskforce meetings: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for copies of all minutes of meetings of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce, excluding the minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2025.

Response

The attachment has the minutes from meetings of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce from when it was established in 2007.

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) (information not held), 30(c) (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs), 35(1)(a) (law enforcement – prevention/detection of crime) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested.

The minutes of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce meeting on 13 November 2025 were not finalised nor agreed at the date of your request. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and members agreed the minutes at a meeting on 5 February 2026. Therefore, this is a formal notice under 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information that you have requested. You may wish to consider submitting a separate FOI request seeking the minutes from the meeting in November.

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested. It is essential for officials to be able to communicate with external stakeholders on issues. Disclosing the content of any information shared, particularly without the consent of the stakeholder, is likely to undermine their trust in the Scottish Government and will substantially inhibit communications on this type of issue in the future. These stakeholders will be reluctant to provide their views fully and frankly if they believe that information is likely to be made public, particularly while they may relate to a sensitive matter like serious organised crime. This would significantly harm the Government’s ability to carry out many aspects of its work, and could adversely affect its ability to gather all of the evidence it needs to make fully informed decisions.

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, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space within which to communicate with appropriate external stakeholders as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s policy position on serious organised crime until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy that is sound and likely to be effective. Disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between the Scottish Government and external stakeholders, which in turn will undermine the quality of the policy making process, which would not be in the public interest.

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 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 202600501737 - Information Released - Attachment

File type

PDF

File size

2.1 MB