All meetings attended by the Cabinet Secretary for Health: FOI release

Information requested

1. All briefings provided to the Cabinet Secretary for Health from the time of the appointment of Neil Gray to the role to present day.

2. The minutes for all meetings attended by the Cabinet Secretary for Health from a week before the appointment of Neil Gray to the role to present day.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested as detailed in the attached document list.

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 exemptions under sections 25(1) (Information otherwise accessible), 28(1) (Relations with the UK), 29(1)(a)(Formulation or development of Scottish Government Policy), 30(b)(i) (Free and Frank Provision of Advice), 30(b)(ii) (Free and Frank exchange of views), 30(c) (Otherwise prejudice effective conduct of public affairs), 38(1)(b) (Personal data relating to a third party) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Please note that Ministers were provided with data and analysis drawn from unpublished Management Information in some briefings. Management Information is information this is collected and used primarily for operational purposes, with its statistical use usually secondary. It is not subject to the same level of validation as published statistics and is available with less of a time lag; this can impact on the data quality. Management Information can differ from published statistics in data source, coverage and definitions. Management Information that is based on the same data source as published statistics may also be revised prior to publication. Therefore, data in the briefings should not be compared to published statistics.

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.