Creative Scotland decision to fund Rein: FOI release

Information requested

Supply any ministerial or first ministerial correspondence, or any other official correspondence from government to Creative Scotland on the subject of Rein, in the form of memos, emails, whatsapp or any other written or digital media in the period after March 10.

Also I would be obliged if you supply any internal government correspondence between government ministers, including the first minister, and officials, in which Creative Scotland is discussed in light of its decision to fund Rein. This should also include memos, emails, whatsapp or any other written or digital media in the period after March 10.

Response

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

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

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 of exemptions under sections: s.38(1)(b) (personal information), s.30 (b)(i) & s.30(b)(ii) (free and frank provision of advice) of FOISA applies to that information

Exemptions under sections s.38(1)(b) and s.30(b)(i)&(ii) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested as explained below:

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names, professions and 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.

An exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice) applies to some of the information requested because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice. The exemption recognises the need for officials to have a private space within which to advise Ministers. Disclosing the content of free and frank advice will substantially inhibit the space within which officials are able to provide free and frank advice to Ministers in future.

An exemption under section 30(b)(ii) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The exemption recognises the need for officials to have a private space within which to exchange views and fully consider issues arising. Disclosing the content of free and frank exchange of views will substantially inhibit the space within which officials are able to freely consider matters arising in future.

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.

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 202400406856 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

38 page PDF

File size

580.2 kB