Communications between Ministers and officials regarding Gaza/Israel: FOI release

Information requested

1. Any and all communications between Scottish Government ministers and officials regarding Gaza/Israel for the past 2 months.
2. Any and all communications between Scottish Government ministers or their officials and the UK Government regarding Gaza/Israel for the past 2 months.
3. Any and all communications from or to the First Minister about Gaza or Israel over the past 2 months.
4. Any documents relating to the Scottish Government's proposal to take refugees from Gaza/Israel in the past 2 months.
5. The minutes of any meetings relating to Gaza/Israel in the past two months.

Response

1. Any and all communications between Scottish Government ministers and officials regarding Gaza/Israel for the past 2 months.

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. This is because the broad scope of your request requires a significant amount of resource to locate, retrieve and provide the information requested. 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. It may be helpful to narrow your scope through narrowing the timescale, or specifying which Scottish Government Ministers or policy areas your request wishes to cover. 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.

2. Any and all communications between Scottish Government ministers or their officials and the UK Government regarding Gaza/Israel for the past 2 months.

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. This is because the broad scope of your request requires a significant amount of resource to locate, retrieve and provide the information requested. 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. It may be helpful to narrow your scope through narrowing the timescale, or specifying which Scottish Government Ministers or policy areas your request wishes to cover. 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.

3. Any and all communications from or to the First Minister about Gaza or Israel over the past 2 months.

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. This is because the broad scope of your request requires a significant amount of resource to locate, retrieve and provide the information requested. 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. It may be helpful to narrow your scope through narrowing the timeframe of communications, specific content of the communications or the sender/recipient of the correspondence. 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.

4. Any documents relating to the Scottish Government's proposal to take refugees from Gaza/Israel in the past 2 months.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. You can find this attached in Annex A.

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 29 (1)(a) Formulation or development of government policy and section 30(b) Free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views of FOISA applies to that information. The reason section 29(1)(a) applies to this information is because the information relates to the formulation and development of government policy. The reason section 30(b) applies to the information requested is because disclosure of information would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice.

This exemption is 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 some public interest in release because of interest in the Scottish Government's proposal to support refugees from Israel/Gaza. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in allowing for the efficient and considered formulation and development of government policy.

5. 'The minutes of any meetings relating to Gaza/Israel in the past two months.'

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. This is because the broad scope of your request requires a significant amount of resource to locate, retrieve and provide the information requested. 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. It may be helpful to narrow your scope through narrowing the timeframe of meetings or specifying which Minister/policy area's meetings you would like to 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.

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 202300381931 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

3 page PDF

File size

114.4 kB