National Clinical Director of Healthcare Quality and Strategy and council tax rises: FOI release

Information requested

1. All minutes from meetings Jason Leitch has held in the last three years (2021-24) where he mentions the words "open and honest" together.

2. All correspondence received (including internal) and sent, including minutes from phone calls and meetings, between councils and the Scottish Government which mentions council tax rises in 2024/25, between December 1 2023 and date of this FOI. -Include any briefings as well about this.

3. List of all councils who have informed the Scottish Government that it is looking at council tax rises in 2024/25.

Response

1. All minutes from meetings Jason Leitch has held in the last three years (2021-24) where he mentions the words "open and honest" together.

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.

2. All correspondence received (including internal) and sent, including minutes from phone calls and meetings, between councils and the Scottish Government which mentions council tax rises in 2024/25, between December 1 2023 and date of this FOI.

With regard to question 2, the scope of your request is pertaining to any correspondence received or sent between 1 December 2023 and 30 January 2024, and refers to Councils, and as such I have considered correspondence or briefings before and after these dates to not be in scope.

Under the specific terms of your requests, I have interpreted correspondence or briefings in relation to 'Council Tax rises' to include a consideration or decisions pertaining only to whether a Council was considering increasing the Council Tax rate in 2024-25. As such, I have not considered correspondence that do not mention Council Tax rises to be within the scope of your request.

Further, I have considered that correspondence between the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) do not to fall within the scope. The reason being that COSLA is not a Council, but rather a representative body of local government which includes all 32 local authorities.

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.

Should the focus of your interest relate to the decision to freeze Council Tax, you may wish to consider changing the parameters of the scope of your request in order to include the correspondence identified above.

3. List of all councils who have informed the Scottish Government that it is looking at council tax rises in 2024/25.

As at 27 February 2024 only Argyll and Bute Council has confirmed that they will be raising Council Tax in 2024/25.

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.