Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence regarding free school meals and parental transition fund: FOI release

Published: 5 December 2023
Directorate: Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice Directorate
Topic: Children and families, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202300381634
Date received: 19 October 2023
Date responded: 14 November 2023

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

"1. All correspondence between the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland and the UK Government regarding the payment of the adult disability allowance between November 2022 and the date of this FOI.

2. All briefings and correspondence received and prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, regarding free school meals for all primary school children between June 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

3. All briefings and correspondence received and prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, regarding the axing of the parental transition fund between March 2022 and the date of this FOI."

Response

In respect of part one of your request, i.e. "All correspondence between the Scottish Government, social security Scotland and the UK Government regarding the payment of the adult disability allowance between November 2022 and the date of this FOI", we have interpreted your request to relate to Adult Disability Payment. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the scope of this request is vast and 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. You may consider reducing the timeframe, selecting specific Social Security Scotland Executive Team members and focussing on a particular aspect of payment of Adult Disability Payment. 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

With reference to part two of your request, i.e. "All briefings and correspondence received and prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, regarding free school meals for all primary school children between June 1 2023 and the date of this FOI", 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 exemptions under sections s.30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice), s.30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views), and s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained in Annex A of this letter.

In respect of part three of your request, i.e. "All briefings and correspondence received and prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, regarding the axing of the parental transition fund between March 2022 and the date of this FOI", I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Again, we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections s.25(1) (information otherwise accessible), s.29(1)(a) (formulation of Scottish Administration policy), s.30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice), s.30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views), and s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are also explained in Annex A.

A schedule of the documents enclosed is set out in Annex B for ease of reference.

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.