Chairman of the Scottish Land Commission role announcement: FOI release

Information requested

1. On Humza Yousaf's appearance in front of committee chairs on March 27, he vowed to look into the leak of Mike Russell winning the role of chairman of the Scottish Land Commission - He said: "I will absolutely examine and explore this issue, we mean no disrespect whatsoever to the parliament.' https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/humza-yousaf-vows-look-michael-32454930 - Could you supply all documentation surrounding this claim, and whether it was looked into, and the final results of the investigation?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received, policy plans, minutes/notes from meetings, or briefings, which mention or are correspondence to or from Nicola Sturgeon, from the past three months?

3. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received, policy plans, minutes/notes from meetings, or briefings, which are about the General Election, from the last two months?

Response

Your first question

I am pleased to provide some of the material requested in relation to your first question in a separate Annex.

Section 25 – Information otherwise accessible

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed below, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy).

The Net Zero, Energy and Transport (NZET) Committee of the Scottish Parliament scrutinised the appointments to the Scottish Land Commission (SLC). Correspondence relating to this is published on their website: Scottish Land Commission | Scottish Parliament Website

Information relating to the appointment of Michael Russell has previously been released under FOI:

March 2024: Council funding, Historic Environment Scotland and Scottish Land Commission information: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

May 2024: Appointment of Mike Russell as chairman of Scottish Lands and Estates: FOI release

Other Information

We are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions apply. I have set out the relevant exemption and explanation below.

Section 30(b)(ii) – free and frank exchange of views

The exemption under section 30(b)(ii) – Free and frank provision of views of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested under your first question. Information is exempt under section 30(b)(ii) if disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release, however this is outweighed by the public interest in preventing the inhibition of the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.

Section 38(1)(b) – personal data of a third party

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested under your first third and fourth questions because it is personal data of individuals included within the correspondence and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation. 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. Redactions have been made where that is the case.

Your second and third questions

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, for both your second and third questions the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

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.

In both instances, the exemption has been applied as the time taken to review the volume of potentially in scope records identified would result in the cost limit being exceeded.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600, for example by specifying more detail as to the subject matter or the specific business areas or activities in which you are interested, or by narrowing the timeframe of your request. For both questions we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government to locate and retrieve that information. For your second question it may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to the names of individuals/organisations with whom we have corresponded. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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 202400421265 - Information Released - Annex

File type

34 page PDF

File size

3.1 MB