Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise meeting with The Promise Scotland: FOI review

Information requested

Original request - 202300380844

Details of the meeting that took place between Natalie Don Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise, and Fiona Duncan and Frazer McKinley, the Promise Scotland, on the 11th May 2023. This should include the agenda, any papers/briefings provided to the Minister to help prepare for the meeting, any papers used and discussed during the meeting and the note/minute taken from the meeting.

Response

Further to my letter of 27 November I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

Details of the meeting that took place between Natalie Don Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise, and Fiona Duncan and Frazer McKinley, the Promise Scotland, on the 11th May 2023. This should include the agenda, any papers/briefings provided to the Minister to help prepare for the meeting, any papers used and discussed during the meeting and the note/minute taken from the meeting.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with modifications. On review of the information withheld under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice) of FOISA, I have reconsidered the application of this exemption along with the public interest test and do not agree with the official’s decision to withhold document 1 in full. I am now partially releasing this information within document 1 which contents an agenda and briefing shared with the Minister ahead of the meeting on 11 May.

I am continuing to withhold a small amount of information under the exemption at 30(b)(i). I consider that the exemption applies to this information for the reasons set out in the initial response. In assessing the application of s30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice) of FOISA I have reconsidered the public interest test arguments for and against. I have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. I 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 briefing to Ministers, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s policy position on Promise related matters until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy 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 policy 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 policy making process, which would not be in the public interest.

Therefore I am continuing to uphold the application of s30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice) of FOISA to a small amount of the information.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) – Personal data has been applied. This exemption applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details, 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.

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 202300385797 - Information Released - Annex

File type

23 page PDF

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301.6 kB