HS2 remarks made by Chief Economist: FOI release

Information requested

On 19th February 2024, the Scottish Daily Express published a story on inaccurate remarks about HS2 made by Scottish Government’s Chief Economist, Gary Gillespie, the Scotonomics Festival of Economics in 2023. That story can be found here:

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-government-adviser-fuelling-fake-32162889

Please provide all internal correspondence, involving Ministers, Civil Servants, Special Advisers, or Press Officers, which discussed the Scottish Government’s response to the above story, including how the statement from a Scottish Government spokesperson was agreed

Response

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested in Annex A.

An exemption under section 38 (1) (b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, eg names/contact details of individuals below the Senior Civil Service, 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.

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 202400402645 - Information released - Annex A

File type

10 page PDF

File size

241.3 kB