Breakdown of the handling of an FOI request: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01055
Date received: 4 April 2018
Date responded: 13 April 2018

Information requested

A breakdown of the handling of FoI/18/00438, including a) who was asked for information, b) who provided information, c) who did not provide information, d) when the FOI was handed to a Special Advisor and how long the Special Advisor held the FOI before returning it, and if they made any requests.

Response

After receiving and then seeking clarification of your request, I acknowledged your request on 13 February 2018.

I then located and gathered the information that fell within the scope of the request. As the Saltire Prize falls within my team's area of work, all the relevant information was held on the Scottish Government's electronic record and document management system and stored in files and folders accessible to me and to my team. This includes material that issues from ministerial offices and material that is sent to us from third parties as it is the responsibility of the policy area to file this information. In this case, it was not necessary to seek information from other individuals.

In preparing my draft response, I considered all of the information held in order to determine if the information held was exempt from disclosure under the provisions of FOISA. In doing so, I considered advice provided by the Scottish Government's Freedom of Information Unit on 9 February 2018 and 13 February 2018.

I shared my draft response together with the information prepared for release with special advisers and the Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy on 7 March 2018.

The response was considered by special advisers and returned without comment on 8 March 2018. Ministerial clearance was not required.

The final response was issued on 12 March 2018.

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