SPS correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

1) The correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service where SPS staff flagged an error with the LS/CMI system. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans said this was first flagged to the Scottish Government on 24 January 2022. Please provide this correspondence and all related correspondence to the issue of incorrect risk assessments from the LS/CMI system from 24 January 2022 until 3 March 2022.

2) Correspondence received by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans and any response from him or his office regarding the incorrect assessments from the LS/CMI system between 3 March 2022 and 9 March 2022.

Response

I apologise for the delay in responding to you. Your request was initially passed to the Scottish Prison Service, then redirected to the Scottish Government to deal with, and thereafter additional time was required to gather and consider all of the correspondence covered by your request.

To assist in fully answering your request, please find attached a table with the relevant documents embedded, along with an explanation for exemptions that have been applied.

1) The correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service where SPS staff flagged an error with the LS/CMI system. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans said this was first flagged to the Scottish Government on 24 January 2022. Please provide this correspondence and all related correspondence to the issue of incorrect risk assessments from the LS/CMI system from 24 January 2022 until 3 March 2022.

1) The LS/CMI IT scoring issue was reported by a Scottish Prison Service user to the IT managed service provider helpdesk for the LS/CMI IT system, on 13 January 2022. There is therefore no correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service user in relation to this issue during the period of your request. Additionally and outwith our response under FOISA, we have provided a copy of the LS/CMI helpdesk log which details the scoring error being logged with the IT helpdesk on 13 January 2022 by a Scottish Prison Service user. Other unrelated helpdesk calls have been redacted from this document as they are not relevant to your request.

Additionally and outwith our response under FOISA, we have also provided a copy of an email from the Risk Management Authority to the Scottish Government, on 24 January 2022, to advise of the scoring issue that had been reported to the IT managed service provider helpdesk on 13 January 2022 by the Scottish Prison Service user. The Risk Management Authority provide clinical helpdesk support to users of the LS/CMI IT system and often engage with users and with the IT managed service provider helpdesk in this context. Information relating to a separate unrelated helpdesk call has been redacted from this email as it is not relevant to your request.

2) Correspondence received by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans and any response from him or his office regarding the incorrect assessments from the LS/CMI system between 3 March 2022 and 9 March 2022.

2) In response to your request for correspondence received by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans and any response from him or his office regarding the incorrect assessments from the LS/CMI system between 3 March 2022 and 9 March 2022, you will find the relevant documents embedded in the attached table, along with an explanation for exemptions that have been applied.

In preparing this part of our response some of the information is exempt under Section 30(b)(i) and (ii) and (c) of the 2002 Act as disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice; or the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation; or would otherwise prejudice substantially or be likely to prejudice substantially, the effective conduct of public affairs, and some of the information is exempt under Section 29(1)(b) as it contains communication between Ministers. These exemptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Taking account of all the circumstances of your request, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption and determined that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemptions. We recognise that there is some public interest in release so that the public can further understand the process regarding Ministerial decision making however, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that policy officials and Ministers can deliberate issues freely until an agreed position is reached.

In addition to the above exemptions having been applied, the exemption under Section 38(1)(b) of the 2002 Act has also been applied to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. personal details such as names and contact details of individuals, 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’ and so there is no requirement to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Additionally and outwith our response under FOISA some documents such as the statement to Parliament are exempt as they area already in the public domain. However they are provided for context as the email exchanges included a copy of
the statement.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released i n response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202200287009 - Information released

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