Responses to Ministerial Code breach complaints: FOI release

Information requested

Scottish Government's response to a previous FoI request (dated 15 March 2024, case reference: 202400401399) which had asked for the text of the 20 most recent complaints against Scottish Ministers that were reviewed against the Scottish Ministerial Code, and asked for: "copies of the Scottish Government's response and any remedies for the following complaints:

#3 - 6 Feb 2024, 'Potential breach of ministerial code: Gillian Martin...'
#4 - 25 Jan 2024, 'Complaint to the First Minister about the absence of minutes...'
#14 - 10 Aug 2023, 'Complaint about Angus Robertson's letter regarding a planning application by Loch Long Salmon company'"

Response

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested.

The response to complaint '#3' is provided at Annex A, the response to complaint '#4' is provided at Annex B and the response to complaint '#14' is provided at Annex C.

An exemption under section 38(1) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some the information you have requested. You will note that I have redacted the personal data of the correspondent and/or responder in two of the three complaint responses in order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and 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.

No other redactions have been made to the letters other than the minor redactions made to protect personal data, as described above.

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 202400420598 - Information Released - Annex A-C

File type

6 page PDF

File size

223.7 kB