First Minister's August 2022 Copenhagen visit: FOI release

Information requested

The following information related to the First Minister’s August 2022 visit to Copenhagen:

1) How much did Nicola Sturgeon's trip to Copenhagen cost and breakdown of these costs?

2) Itinerary of what Ms Sturgeon did in Copenhagen, including her mode of transport and where she stayed and costs of this.

3) Briefing notes prepared from any meetings that were held in Copenhagen including details of who Ms Sturgeon met and what they discussed.

4) Any correspondence between Nicola Sturgeon, her office, special advisers and MSPs in the week leading up to her trip to Copenhagen about the trip, including briefing notes for the media/MSPs if they asked about the trip.

Response

Each point of your request has been responded to in turn below.

1) An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to the information requested because it is intended for future publication within 12 weeks of the date of your request. It is our intention to publish that information no later than 21 November 2022. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until it is published, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

Details of all Ministerial engagements and expenses are proactively published by the Scottish Government, including the costs of travel and accommodation. The information can be accessed at the below link: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/

2) I have attached a copy of the itinerary of the First Minister’s visit.

3) I have attached a copy of the engagement reports for each of the First Minister’s meetings.

4) There was no correspondence regarding the visit between either the First Minister or her office and special advisers or MSPs in the week before the First Minister’s visit.

Section 27(1) – information intended for future publication
This exemption is 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release in terms of providing transparency in the use of public funds and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

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 202200317683 - Information Released - Annex

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11 page PDF

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616.3 kB