Stakeholders correspondence regarding the IMPACT Centre project: FOI appeal

Information requested

All correspondence between or involving Scottish Ministers and/or employees of the Scottish Government with stakeholders regarding the IMPACT Centre project from 1 Jan 2017 to the date of request.

Response

Following your appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, further consideration has been given to the previously withheld information under section 30(b)(ii) and section 33(1)(b). As a result, it has been determined that some further information can now be disclosed and has been provided to you in a separate document. A table referring to the documents released can be found in Annex B of this letter.

It has been concluded that section 33(1)(b) does not apply to the information we hold however, some exemptions have been determined as accurate. A list of the exemptions that apply in this release can be found in Annex A.

In addition, there is certain information redacted as it is “OUT OF SCOPE” of your original request. This is noted as “OUT OF SCOPE” throughout the documents.

As noted in Robert Martin’s response, some of the information that you requested had already been considered under a previous FOISA request which was as follows:

“Any correspondence received or sent by any minister or employee of the Scottish Government since 5 September 2017 regarding the Scottish Government's support, financial or otherwise, for the development of a new concert venue in Edinburgh.”

The “new concert venue” referred to in this request and the “IMPACT Centre Project” in your request are one and the same. The response to the above noted request (FOI/18/02378) was issued on 6 Oct 2018 and covered the period from 5 Sept 2017 until 3 Sept 2018. Details, including a copy of the information released, can be found using the link provided below.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-10-02378/

Unfortunately, the letter from Robert Martin (12 Feb 2019) contained the wrong reference and the associated wrong link. The correct reference was included in Fraser Lawson’s letter (15 May 2019) however the earlier error was not highlighted and the correct link was not provided. I apologise for both the earlier errors and the missed opportunity to highlight this. All the other links provided are correct.

Annex A - Reasons for not providing information
An exemption applies under Section 38(1)(b) – personal data of a third party

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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 applies under Section 28 (1) - Relations with the UK

The exemption in section 28 exempts information from disclosure where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between administrations in the UK.

An exemptions applies under Section 30 (b)(ii) – Free and frank exchange of views

Section 30 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) exempts information from disclosure where disclosure would, or would be likely to, cause substantial harm to one or more of the following:

•  the maintenance of the convention of the collective responsibility of the Scottish Ministers
•  the free and frank provision of advice
•  the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation
•  the effective conduct of public affairs

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/19/00003 - Information Released

File type

44 page PDF

File size

820.1 kB