Former First Minister's speech at Glasgow University and the Arbroath Islamic Community Centre: FOI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence received and sent by the Scottish Government, including internally, briefings written, notes and minutes held by the government about Humza Yousaf's speech at Glasgow University on January 8, including how it was organised and feedback afterwards? Between October 2023 and date of this FOI.

2. How much did this event cost and breakdown of these costs?

3. What parts of his speech were deleted when it was published on the Scot Gov website and the reasons for deleting the specific lines?

4. Could you supply all drafts of his speech and notes written on it by SpAds and civil servants?

5. Who was involved in writing the speech?

6. How much money has the Scottish Government given to the Arbroath Islamic Community centre and all correspondence regarding Humza Yousaf helping to open it in January?

Response

Q1 & 4:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating and retrieving every item of correspondence and draft relating to the First Minister’s speech on 8 January 2024 would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

While you have limited your request to one topic, there is a significant volume of material held by the Scottish Government relating to this speech.

Outwith FOISA, we would offer the following as an example of the volume of information held. A search of one staff member’s mailbox, involved in the creation of the speech and arrangements for its delivery, returned over 1000 items of information.

Any staff member involved in the writing of or support relating to the speech would need to search their personal mailboxes for any correspondence, relating to the speech, including drafts, and it is expected that a number of staff members could have hundreds of items of correspondence.

The time and cost to search and review all materials would exceed the £600 cost limit. 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.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify a particular area or aspect of the speech that you are interested in, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx

Q2:

Details of the associated costs for this event are set out below. I can also confirm that the venue did not charge a fee for its usage.

• Audio Visual and Staging – £4689

It is not possible to provide details of some of the costs for this event, such as staffing costs, because this work was taken forward by civil servants as part of their normal duties supporting the Scottish Government and in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do this. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Q3:

Officials and Special Advisers are routinely involved in the drafting of speeches that are delivered by government Ministers. Where a Minister’s speech includes political content, it is standard practice for those elements to be redacted before being published on the Scottish Government website.

Q5:

The following business areas of the Scottish Government were involved in this speech:

• DG Strategy and External Affairs, Constitution Directorate, Constitutional Futures Division
• DG Economy, Chief Economist Directorate, Office of the Chief Economic Adviser - Economic Analysis and Office of the Chief Economic Adviser - Economic Strategy and Directorate for International Trade and Investment, Export and Inward Investment Delivery
• DG Scottish Exchequer, Directorate for Fiscal Policy and Constitution, The Constitution Unit
• DG Net Zero, Energy and Climate Change Directorate, Energy Industries
• Special Advisers

Q6:

The Scottish Government has not given any money to Arbroath Islamic Community Centre. After conducting searches of our records, a small amount of correspondence has been identified and is enclosed in the Annex of this this letter. Exemptions under S.30(b)(i) and S.38(i)(b) of FOISA apply to some of this information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in Annex B of this letter.

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 202400393501 - Information released - Annex A & B

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