Shirley-Anne Somerville meetings Sept/Oct 2022: FOI release

Information requested

All internal and external correspondence within and sent or received by the Scottish Government including attached documents, meeting handouts, memos, briefings to ministers, attendee lists, location of meeting, notes, minutes, or OneNote memos, linked to the following meetings:

1. Shirley-Anne Somerville's meeting with the FDA on September 22
2. Shirley-Anne Somerville's meeting with SSTA on September 22
3. Shirley-Anne Somerville's meeting with the EIS on September 29
4. Shirley-Anne Somerville's meeting with SLS Bilateral on October 4
5. Shirley-Anne Somerville's meeting with NASUWT on October 6.

Response

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 sections 38(1 (b), 29(1)(a), 30(b)(i) and 30(b)(ii) of FOISA apply to the information requested.

Exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply to some of the information you have requested. 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.

Exemptions under sections 29(1)(a) (policy formulation), 30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice) and 30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested.

These exemptions are subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

We recognise that there is some public interest in release. However, on this occasion this is outweighed by the public interest in upholding application of the exemptions.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

202300338462_Index of Enclosures

File type

137 page PDF

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1.3 MB