Child protection or safeguarding concerns in Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

With regards to the FOI response (202200329532) and the one cited in the link: Child protection or safeguarding concerns in Scotland: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) (202200287758) please provide details of:

1. How many other local authorities were affected by this 'vault' error' or was it just Education Scotland correspondence with Aberdeenshire Council?
2. Was it only communications relating to safeguarding that went missing or communications on other matters also?
3. Can the information not be retrieved from other sources, including emails and other recording systems?
4. Please provide all communication to and from Aberdeenshire Council regarding this missing information.
5.  Please provide all places where this 'vault' error was reported- Education Scotland SMT? CEO? Board? Risk assessment registered updated regarding it?

Response

I have provided an answer to each of your questions below:

How many other local authorities were affected by this 'vault' error' or was it just Education Scotland correspondence with Aberdeenshire Council?

To our knowledge, there were no other emails affected by this ’vault error’. As stated in our previous response to you, the reason Education Scotland was unable to provide the email records was due to human error in saving the emails from the enterprise vault system into our electronic record and document management system. The information that you have requested is already available on the Scottish Government website at the following link: Education Scotland emails regarding Aberdeen Council: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the link above, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Details of all safeguarding concerns are recorded in the safeguarding Data Record tracker and this information is available at the following link: Education Scotland safeguarding correspondence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the link above, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Was it only communications relating to safeguarding that went missing or communications on other matters also?

Please refer to the answer for question one.

Can the information not be retrieved from other sources, including emails and other recording systems?

Please see the attached Annex in which, after completing further searches, we were able to locate a copy of one of the missing emails dated January 2020.

I would like to offer my sincere apologies that we were unable to locate this email copy sooner.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the names of individuals within the Annex because an exemption under section 38(1)(b), personal information of FOISA applies to that information because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. staff who work for Education Scotland, and disclosing their names 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.

Please provide all communication to and from Aberdeenshire Council regarding this missing information.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Education Scotland does not have the information you have requested on communication to and from Aberdeenshire Council regarding this missing information, as this was an internal matter.

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

Please provide all places where this 'vault' error was reported - Education Scotland SMT? CEO? Board? Risk assessment registered updated regarding it?

The following colleagues were involved and notified whilst we underwent a search for the two missing emails:

• Strategic Director for Scrutiny
• Assistant Director Strategy, knowledge and programme management
• Head of Scrutiny
• Head of Inclusion, Wellbeing, and Equality
• Senior Regional Advisor
• Senior Education Officer
• eRDM Records Management Team Support Officer

However, please refer to the answer for question three as we have now located one of the emails in another location. There have been additional checks to see if a copy of the second email had been retained elsewhere in is original format which has unfortunately not produced a 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 http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - 202300344039 - Email trail

File type

2 page PDF

File size

102.2 kB