Data Roaming costs incurred by Former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care of Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

• “Please provide details of all communication Scottish Government officials, special advisers and ministers had with Police Scotland about the data roaming costs incurred by Health Secretary Michael Matheson on a December 2022/January 2023 trip to Morocco, including discussions around police complaints, in the period from 8 November 2023 to 15 November 2023.”

Response

I have included copies of information you have requested in Annex A.

On reviewing material in scope of your request, an exemption has been applied in line with FOISA. Some information has been withheld under Section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA, this is 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 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.

In addition, the Scottish Government and Police Scotland communication teams have a weekly meeting to discuss any media related issues. At this meeting, Police Scotland confirmed that a complaint had been made against Michael Matheson MSP in relation to the roaming charges and shared their media line. No further discussions relating to the roaming charges took place at this meeting.

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 202300385206 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

1 page PDF

File size

48.7 kB