Material regarding the application of the cost limit to FOI:FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/02187  
Date received: 15 August 2018  
Date responded: 12 September 2018

All material (including, but not necessarily limited to, advice, discussion papers, communications, analysis) held by the FOI unit regarding to the application of the cost limit to FOI requests received by the Scottish Government.
The date range for this request is Jan 2016 – present.

Scottish Government officials dealing with FOI requests are directed to use the guidance held in our SharePoint site. This includes our standard advice on applying the cost limit. A copy of this is available at : https://foiguidance.sgworksite.org.uk/. When prompted, enter Username: SCOTLAND\foi and password: Scotland1
Case-handlers may also approach the FOI Unit directly for additional advice and I enclose a copy of some of that information, still held in FOI Unit staff mailboxes. 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 section 38(1)(b) have been applied to the emails provided, the reasons why are explained below.
We provide the Scottish Information Commissioner with quarterly statistical analysis of our case-handling, which includes the number of requests refused on cost grounds. Once the report has been run and submitted, it is deleted. Please visit: http://stats.itspublicknowledge.info/ for the pertinent data.
We have also attached an external Cost Exemption analysis, held in our electronic database.

Exemptions apply
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e names and contact details, 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.
An exemption under section 38(1)(a) of FOISA also applies to some of the information requested because it is personal information of which you are the data subject, and so it is subject to Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. However, as you have confirmed, in relation to cases FOI/18/02110 and FOI/18/02111, that you would prefer your personal details (excluding phone numbers if possible) to remain unredacted in future FoI publications, we have not applied that exemption.

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