First Minister Branchform update correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

The Lord Advocate has shared a list of other occasions in which she informed the First Minister of details of criminal cases.

The list revealed that on 20th March 2025 the First Minister was informed about Peter Murrell appearing in court, the charge of embezzlement, and an estimated amount of alleged embezzlement amount.

I want to ask for the following:

1. A copy of the full email chain in which this update from the Lord Advocate was sent to the First Minister.

2. A copy of any other email that was SENT BY or RECEIVED BY the First Minister regarding ‘Peter Murrell’ or ‘embezzlement’ on 19th March 2025, 20th March 2025 or 21st March 2025.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Question 1

Please see attached a copy of the full email chain in which the update on Operation Branchform was sent to the First Minister on 20th March 2025.

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 exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names/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.

Question 2

As per the Scottish Government records management policy, information should only be retained for as long as necessary. Private Offices retain emails for 3 months as it is the responsibility of the relevant policy area to save government related business to the corporate record. Given this policy, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested for question 2.

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 202600508326 -Information Released - Annex

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