Independence, the common travel area and Simon Case: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all correspondence and briefings held by the Scottish Government about staying in the common travel area after independence, have you asked the UK Government about this and if so, could you supply any documentation about this? Between June 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

2. Have the Scottish Government written any needs analysis for how many migrants the country needs and if so could you supply this? If you have not done so why?
-Could you supply all analysis, briefings and correspondence about a migration target for an independent Scotland?

3. How much does Scotland pay for Trident? Could you include costs for each of the last four years (2019-2023)?

4. All correspondence held by the Scottish Government which mentions or is from Terry Reintke, including minutes from any meetings and notes/briefings about her. Between August 1 2023, and the date of this FOI.

5. Have any concerned civil servants raised any issues about being asked to work on issues outside their devolved competence in the last two years with the Uk government or Scottish government? If so, how many, what was the topic and how was it resolved?

6. All correspondence held by the Scottish Government which mentions or is from Simon Case and is about independence, including minutes from any meetings and notes/briefings about him. Between August 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

7. Could you supply all analysis done on how much the national lottery would cost to run in an independent Scotland, and all analysis and evidence to back up the claim made that it would continue to run in an independent Scotland. Have you asked the National Lottery about this?

8. Could you supply the decision-making process and reasoning behind the tweet mentioned in this story, and all correspondence surrounding it being published? How many complaints were made to you about this and can you supply them?
-https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23997118.scottish-government-accused-blatantly-misleading-public/

Response

1. I enclose a copy of the information you have requested in Annex A of this letter. An exemption under S.38(i)(b) of FOISA applies to a small amount of the information requested. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex D of this letter. No discussions have taken place with the UK Government regarding an independent Scotland remaining in the Common Travel Area within the timescale of your request. Following a vote for independence, this is one of a number of matters which the Scottish Government and UK Government would have to negotiate upon, in this case along with the Government of Ireland. Further information about the current Scottish Government’s position on an independent Scotland remaining in the Common Travel Area can be found in various publications in the Building a New Scotland series.

2.

Part i)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

The publication, ‘Building a New Scotland: Migration to Scotland after independence’, sets out the Scottish Government's proposals for migration policy in the circumstances where Scotland was independent.

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom where immigration matters are currently fully reserved to the UK Government. Within this constitutional framework, the Scottish Government has no control over the operation of the immigration system, which is dealt with by the Home Office. No modelling has been completed on the basis that these proposals would be further informed by evidence of the current needs of Scotland from its migration system at the time of delivery.

Based on the proposals in this paper, a needs-based analysis would consider evidence of which factors would influence what Scotland needs from an immigration system, such as labour shortages affecting specific sectors or communities affected by depopulation. This would ensure that available visa routes to come to Scotland, at the time of delivery, were suitably responsive to the needs of our labour market and communities and could adapt as these change over time. More information on the evidence supporting the paper “Migration to Scotland after independence” can be found summarised within the endnotes of the publication.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Part ii)

Further to the explanation above, w 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.

3. Under the current constitutional arrangements, decisions about the proportion of taxes, raised in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK, to be allocated towards defence spending are a reserved matter to the UK Government. You may wish to consider addressing your query to the UK Government directly, and details of how to do so can be found in the link below. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

How to make a freedom of information (FOI) request: How to make an FOI request - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

4. The information you have requested is enclosed in Annex B of this letter. An exemption under S.38(i)(b) of FOISA applies to a small amount of the information requested. The reasons why this exemption applies are explained in Annex D of this letter.

5. Following a search of our records, I can confirm that no information is held. This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

6. Searches were conducted across the email records of certain Scottish Government officials, who would be most likely to hold relevant information, along with searches of the Scottish Government’s internal system for records management. Various items of information were identified as a result of these searches, some of which is enclosed in Annex C.

We narrowed the searches of email records to key individuals as in order to fully comply with your request we would have had to conduct searches across the email records of every Scottish Government civil servant, which would not be possible to do within the upper cost limit of £600.

In addition, some of the information you have requested is publicly available. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed within Annex C, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Exemptions under Section 28(1), 30(b)(i), 30(b)(ii), 36(1) and 38(1)b of FOISA applies to some of the information requested. The reason why these exemptions apply is explained in Annex D of this letter.

7. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under Section 30(c) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. The reason why this exemption applies is explained in Annex D of this letter. The Scottish Government discussed proposals for the National Lottery to run in an independent Scotland with the former license holders, Camelot, prior to the independence referendum in 2014. Further discussions would take place with the new license holder ahead of a future independence referendum.

8. All information held by the Scottish Government about this matter has been released in response to a previous FOI request, and a copy of this information is enclosed with this letter. In this previous FOI request, exemptions under Sections under S.30(c) and 38(i)(b) were applied to some of the information requested, and I can confirm these exemptions continue to apply. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in Annex D of this letter.

The Scottish Government received one letter of complaint, which is enclosed with 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 202400402326 - Information released - Attachments

File type

75 page PDF

File size

5.7 MB