Council tax and Cabinet meetings: EIR release

Information requested

1. How many cabinet meetings have been held this year? And how many have been attended by the following: Dorothy Bain, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater?

2. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government, including internal correspondence, plus all briefings prepared for ministers regarding the UK Government's towns funding referenced here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seven-scottish-towns-to-share-140- million-to-improve-long-term-future

3. All meeting requests from EIS-FELA and Unison with government ministers from this year and whether they were accepted or rejected. Please include which minister was requested and reasons for rejection.

4. Minutes from all discussions held between the Scottish Government and Cosla regarding the freezing of council tax between September 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

5. What date is the Scottish Government's council tax consultation due to be analysed and then published?

6. All correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens regarding the council tax freeze between September 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

7. Could you supply any analysis done by the Scottish Government or for the Scottish Government about the impact of the council tax freeze on households, broken down by how much income they bring in?

Response

As question 2 of your question is 'environmental information', for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with this element of your request under those regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with this part of your request under FOISA.

The 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, because there is no public interest in dealing with this part of your request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request. Therefore, questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be handled under FOISA, and question 2 will be handled under the EIRs. I will deal with each of your requests in turn.

Response to your request

1. How many cabinet meetings have been held this year? And how many have been attended by the following: Dorothy Bain, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater?

Between the start of 2023 and the date of your request (15 November 2023), Cabinet met 33 times.

In this period, the Lord Advocate attended fifteen meetings, the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity attended seven, and the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights attended four.

2. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government, including internal correspondence, plus all briefings prepared for ministers regarding the UK Government's towns funding referenced here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seven-scottish-towns-to-share-140- million-to-improve-long-term-future.

I enclose a number of documents which should satisfy your request. Due to the number of documents we have consolidated these as one attachment for ease. 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 exceptions under regulations 11(2) (personal information) and regulation 10(4)(e)(internal communications) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter. Please note that there has also been informationredacted in some of the documents because some information found in the documents is not within the scope of the request.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested in your request because it is personal data of a third party 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 exception 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 exception.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) also applies to some of the information requested in your request because it is internal communication about the formulation of lines to take.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide free and frank advice and views to Ministers in briefing for lines to take. It is clearly in the public interest that Ministers can properly defend the Government’s policies and decisions. They need full and candid advice from officials to enable them to do so. Premature disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

3. All meeting requests from EIS-FELA and Unison with government ministers from this year and whether they were accepted or rejected. Please include which minister was requested and reasons for rejection.

We have interpreted your FOI request as meaning all meeting requests in conjunction with Further Education Trade Unions EIS-FELA and Unison FE with government ministers. The information you have requested is available from the Scottish Parliament website under reference S6W-21804. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Our records show that we received one formal request from Unison FE to meet with government ministers this year, which has been attached to this response. We do not hold any other formal requests from EIS-FELA and Unison FE to meet with government ministers this year. This is notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further information for your request.

4. Minutes from all discussions held between the Scottish Government and Cosla regarding the freezing of council tax between September 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

In response question 4, three documents were identified as being in scope.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance some of the information you have requested because an exemptions under sections s.38(1)(b), 29(1)(a) and 30(b)(i) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained below.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information you have requested. 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.

An exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice) applies to some of the information requested. This exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for officials to have a private space within which to provide free and frank advice to Ministers before the Scottish Government reaches a settled public view. Disclosing the content of free and frank advice on the Council Tax freeze will substantially inhibit the provision of such advice in the future.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s position on the Council Tax freeze, until the Government as a whole can adopt a decision that is sound and likely to be effective. This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered, based on the best available advice, so that good decisions can be taken. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision making process, which would not be in the public interest.

These documents are provided as attachments to this request.

5. What date is the Scottish Government's council tax consultation due to be analysed and then published?

In regards to question 5; What date is the Scottish Government's council tax consultation due to be analysed and then published?; the Fairer Council Tax consultation is due to be analysed and published by the 10th January 2024.

6. All correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens regarding the council tax freeze between September 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

7. Could you supply any analysis done by the Scottish Government or for the Scottish Government about the impact of the council tax freeze on households, broken down by how much income they bring in?

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to the information requested in regards to question 7; provide any analysis done by the Scottish Government or for the Scottish Government about the impact of the council tax freeze on households, broken down by how much income they bring in; we intend to publish this information in December alongside the Scottish Budget, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this information before the planned publication date.

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
 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 of information regarding the Council Tax freeze and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

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.

EIR 202300385194 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

1.7 MB