Independence in Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

Could you supply all briefings written for John Swinney's interview with Laura Kuenssberg on March 8 as well as all correspondence setting up the interview. He said in the interview: "I think it's now pretty clear in opinion polls that there is a sustained majority support for independence in Scotland." Could you provide the evidence to back this up?

Response

1 Briefings written for interview

No briefings were written for the interview. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

It might be helpful to know the First Minister had access to existing briefings on the NHS, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, education, justice, the budget, oil and gas, and delivery.

2 Correspondence setting up the interview

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in Annex A. 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 s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. 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.

3 Polling data

Opinion polls on Scottish independence are conducted by private companies who receive no public funding or resources from the Scottish Government however, their results are all freely available in the public domain.

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 202600509980 - Information Released - Annex A

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