Briefing materials relating to the Minimum Income Guarantee: FOI Review

Information requested

Any internal Scottish Government communications regarding the introduction of a ‘minimum income guarantee’. Please can this include any briefing material produced in relation to this subject. I would like this information between 7 August 2021 and 24 August 2021.

Response

Further to my letter of 28 October 2021, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for any internal Scottish Government communications regarding the introduction of a ‘minimum income guarantee’, including any briefing material produced in relation to this subject, between 7 August 2021 and 24 August 2021.

I have been asked to look at your request afresh, to decide whether the original response in relation to the application of section 29(1)(a) should be confirmed, with or without modifications, as appropriate, or that a fresh decision should be substituted. I can confirm that I was not involved in the handling or decision-making around the original response.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

I have undertaken an extensive review of the information previously withheld under regulation 29(1)(a) in this case and have determined that some that information can now be disclosed. This is due to a number of factors, including the passage of time since the documents were written, and further policy development. Some information has been provided as an extract because the remainder of the documents did not fall within the scope of the original request.

I am satisfied that an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy development) continues to apply to some information redacted from documents provided for the reasons set out in our initial response. In addition, I have determined that an exemption under section 30(c) (effective conduct of public affairs) and section 38(1)(b) (personal data) applies to a some of the information previously withheld. The reasons why these exemption apply are set out in the annex to this letter.

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 - 202100251240 - Information Released - Annex

File type

23 page PDF

File size

1.3 MB