Timeline of Scottish Government/UK Government correspondence leading to section 35 order: FOI review

Information requested

A copy of the minutes of the meeting that was held the day before Stage 3 of the [Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland)] Bill.

Response

I have concluded that the original decision should be overturned, and the minutes should be released to you.

Our original response to your request explained that the minutes were being withheld under section 28(1) of FOISA, which exempts information from disclosure where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between administrations in the UK. My review has concluded that this exemption does not apply to these minutes at this time. That is because the minutes relate to a topic that is already the subject of a well-documented legal disagreement between the Scottish and UK Governments. In the context of that existing dispute, I have concluded that the release of these minutes at this juncture would not cause new harm to relations between the two administrations.

Please find a copy of the minutes of the meeting attached.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested, because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names of individuals. 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 - 202300358093 - Information release

File type

5 page PDF

File size

144.8 kB