Challenge Authority Programme and Pupil Equity Fund reports: FOI release

Information requested

'Please can you provide copies of all reports submitted by North Lanarkshire Council to the Scottish Government relating to funding they received through the Challenge Authority Programme and Pupil Equity Fund and closing the poverty related attainment gap.'

Response

The information requested is in the attached Annex. 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:

• An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information provided in response to request because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, 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.
• An exemption under section 27(1) of FOI(S)A – information intended for future publication applies to three PEF spend records in response to the request as we intend to publish that information along with all local authorities PEF spend information by the end of February, 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 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 the need for transparency 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.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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.