Engagement between the Scottish Government and WAVE Trust: FOI release

Information requested

1. Did the then Deputy First Minister explicitly and clearly decline the offer of a charitable donation in exchange for meeting with the charity prior to meeting with the CEO of the charity in June 2022.

1(a) If yes, please provide all written correspondence in relation to this.

2. Did the then Deputy First Minister consult the Permanent Secretary or Cabinet Secretariat, as provided for under paragraph 3.30 of the Scottish Ministerial Code, on how the offer of the charitable donation should be handled before allowing the meeting to proceed.

2(a) If yes, please provide all written correspondence in relation to this.

Response

Regarding question 1, all of the information available regarding the meeting between the Deputy First Minister and the CEO of the WAVE Trust in June 2022 is already available as part of previous FOI releases 202400403349 and 202400419507. As previously stated in our responses to FOI 202400419507 and Parliamentary Question S7W-01524, the then-Deputy First Minister did not engage with or accept Mr Hosking's offer of a donation to a charity of his choice. The meeting was arranged entirely independently of this offer.

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

Regarding Question 2, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because the then Deputy First Minister did not consult the Permanent Secretary or Cabinet Secretariat as he did not accept or plan to accept the offer. Paragraph 3.22 of the Scottish Ministerial Code notes that ‘… Ministers should not accept gifts, hospitality or services which would, or might appear to, compromise their judgement or place them under an obligation to people or organisations that might try to influence their work in government.’

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in 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.