Internal communications regarding Universal Credit £20 per week uplift: FOI release

Information requested

Any internal Scottish Government communications on the subject of the £20 per week Universal Credit uplift between 10 September 2021 and 25 September 2021.

Response

I attach a copy of most of the information you requested.

Exemptions under sections 25, 29(1)(a), 30(b) and 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some the information you have requested. This mean some of the information requested:

• Information otherwise accessible;
• Related to the formulation / development of Scottish Government policy;
• Would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation;
• Related to personal data that is protected by data protection law.

Information which is exempt on account of it being public data protected by data protection law is absolutely exempt.

These other exemptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption in some cases. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because this would in one sense enhance public scrutiny and therefore transparency and accountability. However, disclosure would also undermine the ability for the Scottish Ministers and officials to develop and communicate fully formed and impacted government policy to the public, and to discuss hugely significant and complex issues in a free and frank manner. On balance, the harm that would be caused by disclosure to the effective conducting of government business outweighs the public interest in disclosure in the instances where we have exempted the information.

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 - 202100249492 - Information Released - Annex

File type

45 page PDF

File size

1.1 MB