Ministerial Code breach correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

All correspondence held by the Scottish Government about alleged ministerial code breaches from the last two months.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. Although the response falls out with the scope of this request under FOISA (because it was after 23 March), it may be helpful to note that the First Minister responded to Jackie Baillie on an alleged ministerial code breach on 1 April 2026. I have  attached this correspondence for information.

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 FOISA apply to some of that information. The exemptions that apply are:-

Section 38(1)(b) (personal information)
Section 25 (information otherwise accessible)

Section 38(1)(b) (personal data of a third party)

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal data of a third party) applies to some of the information because it is personal data of a third party, in this case, the name of a member of Parliamentary staff, and their personal email address. Disclosing this 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.

Section 25 (information otherwise accessible)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Some of the information you have requested is available here:- Letter to First Minister - Ministerial Code breach - For Women Scotland

If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 202600511703 - Information Released - Annex

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PDF

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433.3 kB