Special Advisers work in the general election campaign: FOI release

Information requested

1. Can you confirm that any work carried out by Special Advisers in pursuit of the SNP’s general election campaign cannot be paid by the Scottish Government, and should be paid by the political party?

2. Please send any communications to Special Advisers or Ministers advising this re this election.

Response

In response to your first request, if a Special Adviser wishes to take part in an election, by-election or referendum campaign, he/she is able to do so. Those who remain in post to work on government business must ensure that they do not use official resources for party political purposes and that any participation in the campaign is in a Special Adviser’s own time and outside office hours. They may not use annual or unpaid leave for this purpose.

Detailed guidance on the restrictions on Special Advisers’ involvement in political activities is set out in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers working in the Scottish Government.

In response to your second request, I enclose a copy of 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 an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information.

Section 38(1)(b) applies because it is personal data of a third party, for example names of individuals or other personal data 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 202400415543 - Information released - Attachment

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