Communications between Colin McAllister and Education Scotland regarding Freedom of Information: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02165  
Date received: 10 August 2018  
Date responded: 19 October 2018

 

 

Copies of all communications between Colin McAllister and Education Scotland staff regarding Freedom of Information requests - from January 2017 to present.

 

 

May we first make an apology for the lateness of this response. This is not in line with the service we seek to provide and we acknowledge that it falls short of timescales we have a requirement to meet.

We have sought guidance from the central FoI Unit at the Scottish Government on some technical aspects of our response. Whilst this has helped us provide you with better information, it has also identified that our method of redaction needed to change so that black lines are no longer used. This necessitated some technological changes and a fresh scan of the materials to be released. This added a significant time delay and for that we apologise unreservedly. We are working to ensure that such delays do not happen in the future.

Some of the information you have requested is available from www.gov.scot - I have provided the links to the relevant information at Annex A. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. 
 

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) of FOISA (personal information) applies to that information.

This exemption applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party (the names and contact details of members of staff, requesters and other individuals) and disclosure would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the GDPR 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.

 

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