Briefings regarding United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Bill: FOI release

Information requested

All of the briefings received by Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills from the day if their appointment, until and including the day of receipt of this FOI.

All of the briefings received by any Minister relating to the UNCRC bill and the Incorporation of human rights into Scot's Law.

Response

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

In relation to the first element of your request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600, for example by specifying particular topics of interest, or by narrowing the length of time covered by your request. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

In relation to the second element of your request, 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 the following exemption(s) of FOISA applies to that information:

• s.28 (relations within the United Kingdom)
• s.29(1)(a) (policy formulation)
• s30(b)(i) (free and frank exchange of views)
• s30(c) (otherwise prejudice effective conduct of public affairs)
• s38(1)(b) (personal information)] of FOISA applies to that information.

The reason why these exemptions apply are explained below.

Exemptions under sections 28, 29(1)(a), 30(b)(i) and 30(c) 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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on the UNCRC and Human Rights Bill will be disclosed, and that may undermine or constrain the Government’s debate on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names, 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’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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 202300353281 - Information Released - Annex

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12 page PDF

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