Correspondence regarding Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Health Improvement Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

1. All communications between the First Minister, his office or Scottish Government personnel and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in regard to social listening and/or monitoring of organisations and/or individuals between January 2022 and the present day.

2. All communication between the First Minister, his office or Scottish Government personnel and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry between 1st June 2023 and the present day.

3. All communications between the First Minister, his office or Scottish Government personnel and Health Improvement Scotland between 1 June 2023 and the present day.

4. All Scottish Government documents regarding the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry between 1 March 2023
and the present day.

Response

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

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 an exemption under sections;

• 29(1)(b) (Ministerial communications),
• 30(b)(i) and 30(b)(ii) (free and frank provision of advice or views),
• 30(c) (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs),
• 33(1)(b) (disclosure would (or would be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation),
• 36(1) (confidentiality in legal proceedings),
• 37(1)(a)(iii) and 37(1)(b)(ii) (Documents created by a court, inquiry or arbiter) and
• 38(1)(b) (personal information)

of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry website (https://www.hospitalsinquiry.scot) in relation to question 4. A full list of relevant links is provided in the Annex to this letter. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

In relation to question 3, 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. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information, we would need to conduct a search of all records held by the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to organisations with whom we have corresponded. 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, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the communication with Health Improvement Scotland, in relation to question 3, that you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI (Freedom of Information) and the EIRs  (Environmental Information Request)’ on his website at:  http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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 202300371292 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

3 page PDF

File size

122.2 kB

FOI 202300371292 - Information Released - Annex B

File type

55 page PDF

File size

1.3 MB