Correspondence with President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA): FOI release

Information requested

All correspondence received by or communicated from any of the Scottish Ministers, or their special advisors and Councillor Allison Evison, President of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities during 2019/2020 calendar years- relating to either;
A. The allocation of the £50 Million for schools awarded as a result covid-19
And
B. Brexit & EU negotiations or UK-EU Trade deal.
This includes all forms of communication available, not limited to but including, email, text messages, whatsapp or convention mail.

Response

For ease your request has been broken down into 2 distinct elements. Part A relates to COVID-19 and Part B to Brexit. The list of documents included can be found in Annex C for ease.

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(s) under section(s) s.38(1)(b) (personal  information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Response to your request – Part B
I enclose a copy of most of the information that you have requested. Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide a very minimal amount of the information due to exemptions under s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA. The reason for this is explained in Annex of this letter.

ANNEX A – REASON FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION – PART A
An exemption(s) under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. Individual names and email addresses have not been provided and this exemption applies as it relates to personal information.
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.

ANNEX B – REASON FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION – PART B
An exemption(s) under section(s) s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information. Note that this exemption has only been applied to personal details, including names, email addresses and telephone numbers of Scottish Government or COSLA officials. 
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.

ANNEX C – LIST OF DOCUMENTS INCLUDED IN RELEASE
I have labelled the document for part A using letters and part B using numbers for ease of identification.
Part A

• Document A - Email chain (imbedded letter is same as document C)
• Document B - Letter from Cllr Evison to DFM - 30 July 2020
• Document C - Letter from DFM to Cllr Evison (same file as is imbedded in document A)
• Document D - Letter from Cllr Evison to DFM
• Document E - Letter from Cllr Evison to Ms Kate Forbes

Part B

• Document 1 - Letter from Ms Campbell to Cllr Evison dated 2 July 2019
• Document 2 - Letter from Ms Campbell to Cllr Evison dated 25 June 2019
• Document 3 - Letter Cllr Evison to Ms Campbell dated 05 July 2019
• Document 4 - Letter Mr Russell to Cllr Evison dated 14 May 2020
• Document 5 - Letter Cllr Evison to Mr Russell dated 15 June 2020
• Document 6 - Letter Cllr Evison to Mr Russell dated 26 June 2020
• Document 7 - Letter Cllr Evison to Ms Cunningham dated 30 June 2020
• Document 8 - Letter Cllr Evison to Ms Cambell dated 15 july 2020
• Document 9 - Letter Ms Campbell to Cllr Evison dated 25 Aug 2020
• Document 10 - Letter Cllr Evison to Ms Campbell dated 29 Sept 2020
• Document 11 - Letter Ms Campbell to Cllr Evison dated 10 Oct 2020
• Document 12 - Letter Cllr Evison to Ms Campbell dated 29 Oct 2020

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-202000111613 - Information released - Documents A-E

File type

8 page PDF

File size

971.9 kB

FoI-202000111613 - Information released - Documents 1-12

File type

21 page PDF

File size

1.3 MB