Non Binary working group: FOI release

Information requested

Information on how many times the non-binary working group has met since being founded. You also asked for all minutes/notes taken from these meetings, plus a list of attendees.

In addition, you requested how much money has been spent on the non-binary working group and breakdown of these costs.

Finally you requested all correspondence, including internal correspondence, received and sent by the Scottish Government about the conversion therapy ban between April 2023 and the date of this FOI (24 October 2023). If a cost exemption only applied to the above, you asked for a more specific timeframe for information, identified as between April 2023 and August 2023.

Response

Minutes from the working group meetings and sub-group meetings have been published on the website and include the names of attendees, apart from community member names which have not been published. They can all be found here: Non-Binary Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Section 25(1) of Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) (regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs) applies as information is available in the public domain and is ‘otherwise accessible’.

The total expenditure on the working group was £2,709 which covered the publication of the working group’s report and our response, and remuneration for community members who attended meetings.

Your request also asks for “all correspondence, including internal correspondence, received and sent by the Scottish Government about the conversion therapy ban “between April 2023 and the date of this FOI”. The requestor also provided an alternative timeframe within the proposal linked to the request for correspondence – “if too much money, lessen the timeframe between April 2023 and August 2023”.

As outlined below, 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.

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.

We interpret correspondence to include email correspondence and you have specifically requested all internal correspondence.

The request (and alternative request with a narrowed timeframe) significantly exceeds the cost limit. Narrowing the request (for example - requesting an indication of specific topics of correspondence in relation to the conversion therapy ban) would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted.

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.