Appointment of Jamie Hepburn as Minister for Independence: FoI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence received and sent by the Scottish Government from members of the public and outside organisations since March 27 2023 regarding the appointment of Jamie Hepburn as independence minister.
2. All analysis done by the government on the pros and cons of adopting the Euro if Scotland became  an independent country including discussions between civil servants and ministers through emails and any cost/benefit analysis done between January 2022 and the date of this foi. If this if too much, between January 2023 until the date of this foi.

Response

Part 1 –
The Scottish Government does not hold a central record of all correspondence received from the public or outside organisations in a way which details all of the issues raised in each letter or email. Instead, correspondence is handled by the business area with responsibility for the prominent topic in each letter.

This means it is not possible to provide an exhaustive list of all correspondence which may have mentioned the appointment of a Minister for Independence, where it was not the main topic within the letter.
While we cannot provide a definitive list of all correspondence which mentions this appointment, we have conducted searches in the business area responsible for independence policy, as the area which has handled letters primarily about this appointment. Some of the information you have requested is enclosed with this letter at Annex A. 
An exemption under Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (Personal Information) applies to a small amount of the information you have requested because it is the personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of members of the public, 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.

Part 2 – 
At the time of your request, no cost/benefit analysis or analysis on the pros and cons of adopting the Euro if Scotland became an independent country has been conducted. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

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 202300366091 - Information released - Annex A

File type

29 page PDF

File size

556.3 kB