Former First Minister meeting with the Consul General of Pakistan: FOI release

Information requested

Meeting minutes and any internal correspondence relating to a meeting between the First Minister and the Consul General of Pakistan on 21 December 2023.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. This can be found at Annex A.

An exemption under Section 32(1)(a) of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested. Information is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between the UK and another state. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information
outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested because it is personal data of a third party (i.e. names/contact details of individuals), 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 202400406352 - Information released - Annex A

File type

11 page PDF

File size

846.4 kB