Criminal cyber hack against NHS Dumfries & Galloway: FOI release

Information requested

Any correspondence and meetings in relation to the February 2024 criminal cyber hack against NHS Dumfries & Galloway (and subsequent publication of data in March and May) between the following:

• Anyone in the Scottish Health Secretary's Office or the First Minister's Office (including the Health Secretary and First Minister (current and former)) with anyone in NHS Dumfries & Galloway and Dumfries & Galloway Council;
• Anyone in the Scottish Health Secretary's Office or the First Minister's Office (including the Health Secretary and First Minister (current and former)) with anyone in the UK Scotland Office or the Secretary of State for Scotland himself;
• Anyone in the Scottish Health Secretary's Office or the First Minister's Office (including the Health Secretary and First Minister (current and former)) with anyone in Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency or the National Cyber Security Centre.

Please provide the content of correspondence and meeting minutes. If unable, please instead provide the date/s and subjects of meetings and correspondence in as much detail as possible.

Response

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 an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. 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 17(1) (Information not held) also applies to parts of your request. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) (Information not held) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested because it does not exist.

We can confirm that Mr Neil Gray - Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care met with representatives from NHS Dumfries & Galloway and Police Scotland on 9 May. A summary of the meeting held on 9 May along with details of the email are included as a separate attachment to this
response.

In relation to the summary document of the meeting held on 9 May an exemption under section s35(1) (Law enforcement) of FOISA applies to part of this document. Certain details contained within are withheld as this information would provide details about an ongoing Police Scotland investigation that would assist a potential threat actor.

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 202400413334 - Information released - Attachments 1 & 2

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