Spring Budget communications campaign: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request (202400403341)

You recently engaged in a communications campaign, e.g.

https://x.com/scotgov/status/1766116922909692407

The text reads:

“The UK Spring Budget has failed to deliver the funding Scotland needs for public services. National Insurance cuts in the Spring Budget and Autumn Statement have cost £20 billion. This means Scotland will not see up to £1.6 billion of potential additional funding.”

Please provide me with:

a) Any advice to Scottish Ministers proposing this communications campaigns and their response. Please also include any comments by special advisers.

b) Either i) written confirmation that your Permanent Secretary was content this campaign, and the above text from a Scottish Government account, was compliant with the legal responsibilities officials have under the Civil Service Code to impartiality; or ii) confirmation this clearance was considered and discounted; or )iii confirmation that it was not considered to be needed.

c) Email chains or documents where the campaign text was i) proposed and ii) finalised.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for

a) Any advice to Scottish Ministers proposing this communications campaigns and their response. Please also include any comments by special advisers.

b) Either i) written confirmation that your Permanent Secretary was content this campaign, and the above text from a Scottish Government account, was compliant with the legal responsibilities officials have under the Civil Service Code to impartiality; or ii) confirmation this clearance was considered and discounted; or )iii confirmation that it was not considered to be needed.

c) Email chains or documents where the campaign text was i) proposed and ii) finalised.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, without some modifications.

In coming to this decision, I have looked at whether the correct procedures were followed including all statutory obligations were met, this included ensuring all information within scope was captured during searches and assessing the exemptions which have been applied. I can confirm I had no involvement with the original FOI request proceedings.

Having reviewed all of the information I can confirm that I am upholding the application of Section 38 (1)(b) (Personal Information) of FOISA. However I have noticed that there has been over redaction of the domain names @gov.scot which should have not been withheld. 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.

I can confirm that Section 17(1) (Information not held) of FOISA has also been applied appropriately as no written confirmation from the Permanent Secretary was provided, nor was this confirmation considered and discounted, therefore the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Following my review I believe that annex 1 provided the clearance chain and that the original FOI response outlines the usual process for clearance.

In relation to the application of Section 30(c) (substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) of FOISA I have reviewed the information withheld under this exemption, along with the public interest test arguments for and against release. I can confirm that some of the information containing the final social media post copy was redacted in error. This has now been reinstated within the updated annex 2 supplied.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, I have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. I have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of releasing the information which is now provided in annex 2 and highlighted.

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 202400413228 - Information Released - Annex

File type

11 page PDF

File size

330.4 kB