Freedom of Information request statistics: FOI release

Information requested

For the years 2024 and 2025, for each of the ten people who have made the most FOI-EIR requests in each of those years.

1. Name of requester

2. Capacity of requester (eg media, journalist, political party researcher, academic researcher, campaigner, private individual). If the person's name cannot be disclosed for whatever reason, please include as much detail as you hold about the role or capacity (e.g. Liberal Democrat party researcher, Daily Mail journalist, etc, as well as identifiers to enable the reader to know which people from 2024 feature in the list for 2025, and vice versa (eg Daily Express Journalist A, SNP Researcher B)).

3. Number of FOI-EIR requests made in year

4. Number of these sent to an internal review

5. Number of these appealed to Commissioner

6. Number of the FOI-EIR requests refused on cost-limit grounds

7. Number of the FOI-EIR requests given a plain ‘no information held’ response

8. And can the response set out precisely what is being counted in each case — whether it is individual FOI-EIR requests, or whether it is pieces of correspondence containing multiple FOI-EIR requests (ie a single email containing three separate requests for information).

Response

Please find attached an excel sheet with some of the information you requested for each year for clarity.

However, I have provided some further information for some of the information sought for you below.

1. Name of requester

We have provided this in the attached spreadsheet where possible. However, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government cannot provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption applies.

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

2. Capacity of requester (eg media, journalist, political party researcher, academic researcher, campaigner, private individual). If the person's name cannot be disclosed for whatever reason, please include as much detail as you hold about the role or capacity (e.g. Liberal Democrat party researcher, Daily Mail journalist, etc, as well as identifiers to enable the reader to know which people from 2024 feature in the list for 2025, and vice versa (eg Daily Express Journalist A, SNP Researcher B)

The Scottish Governments uses a case management system to record and manage correspondence, including FOISA and EIRs requests. This case management system has the facility to record ‘requester category’ however this may not in all cases be accurately recorded and can vary for the same person dependant on who inputs the data and the information provided. Because FOISA and the EIRs are applicant blind it is not necessary for requesters to give us any information about themselves that would always allow the requester category to be completed accurately.

For example, under ‘Requester category’ the sender can be recorded as: Individual, media, solicitor, elected representative, organisation, researcher, other. However without explicit notification of such roles, the requester category is often miscategorised with requesters recorded in different categories against different requests that they have made. This means for each of the ten names you have requested, there are various categories for each. I have provided what this has been recorded as when the report was produced however please note as previously mentioned this is not always accurate and can change.

3. Number of FOI-EIR requests made in year

This is the recorded figures for all FOI/EIR requests created in 2024 and 2025. You can find these figures in the attached excel sheet in row 3.

4. Number of these sent to an internal review

This is the recorded figures for all FOI/EIR reviews created in 2024 and 2025. You can find these figures in the attached excel sheet at row 4.

5. Number of these appealed to Commissioner

You can find these figures in the attached excel sheet at row 4.

6. Number of the FOI-EIR requests refused on cost-limit grounds

We have interpreted this to mean any ‘request’ as a whole that has been refused on cost grounds as a whole, such as section 12 of FOISA or regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs. This does not include requests where multiple questions are contained within the same request and part of a request is refused under the above noted exemption/exception. You can find these figures within the attached excel sheet in row 6.

7. Number of the FOI-EIR requests given a plain ‘no information held’ response

We have interpreted this to mean any ‘request’ refused as a whole under section 17(1) of FOISA or exception 10(4)(a) of the EIRs whereby no information is held. You can find these figures within the attached excel sheet at row 7.

8. Individual FOI/EIRs or multiple requests

Numbers provided reflect cases which we have split - as they contain multiple requests for different areas in Scottish Government - and also include individual requests received.

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 202600502420 - Information Released - Spreadsheet

File type

Excel document

File size

15.2 kB