Information regarding meetings between the First Minister and WAVE Trust: FOI release

Information requested

1. The notes makes reference to a meeting between John Swinney and Wave trust on September 16th, please can you provide the minutes?

2. The notes also make reference to a 2022 meeting between John Swinney and WAVE Trust which appears to have arranged as a result of Mr Hosking offering to make a donation to a charity on behalf of Mr Swinney. Can you confirm wherever any information exists regarding the reporting of this to the relevant authorities by Mr Swinney?

Response

For question 1, I have provided the minute of the meeting you requested. 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 Section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This is because it is personal data of a third party 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.

For 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, Mr Swinney, did not report the offer of a donation as he did not engage with, plan to accept or 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.

You may be interested in related FOI responses 202400419507, 202600531607 and recently published 202600535933 which are available on the Scottish Government website, as well as our response to Parliamentary Question S7W-01524 on the Scottish Parliament website.

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FOI 202600541158 - Information released - Document

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