Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-2022 detailing the planned actions: FOI release

Information requested

• Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I request copies of all policy papers, options appraisals, ministerial submissions, and internal emails between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024 that discuss or recommend extending candidacy rights to foreign nationals with limited leave to remain (as opposed to only indefinite leave).
• Please include any documents identifying which minister or official first proposed or strongly supported this specific change.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

While much of the material requested is likely to be contained within the files related to the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill, this is not exclusively the case. There are also a large number of documents saved in the files for that Bill. For example, the preliminary consideration and drafting file contains over 600 items.

I have therefore run searches on our corporate filing system and consideration of the results has led me to conclude that the request cannot be answered without exceeding the 40 hour ceiling for work within the £600 cost limit.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

I have considered how best to suggest a way to reduce the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. This is complicated by your request covering multiple aspects and my suggestion would be to focus on one part, for example the final section where you ask about “documents identifying which minister or official first proposed or strongly supported this specific change”.

In that context I thought it might be helpful to provide the following background information:

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-22 – which detailed actions the Scottish Government would take in the coming year and beyond - contained the following commitment:

"We will bring forward legislation on electoral reform, to be in force before the next Scottish Parliament elections, that will enable more people to stand as candidates at Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections…We will also work to increase voter registration and active participation in elections by under-represented groups, including non‑UK citizens and young people."

In addition, the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party - Shared Policy Programme (2021) included an undertaking to extend candidacy rights in devolved elections, and a commitment to the fullest possible democratic participation in Scotland.

You might also like to note paragraph 21 of the Policy Memorandum which accompanied the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill.

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.