Anne's Law, cycle lanes, youth mobility scheme and Ministerial cars: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all documentation the Scottish Government holds on Anne's Law and its implementation, including policy notes, correspondence, briefings, minutes and notes from meetings, and also include risk registers and what has been so far to implement it? From the last six months

2. How much has the Scottish Government spent/given out grants on cycle lanes in the past five years, with a breakdown by each year and each project?

3. Could you supply all discussions the Scottish has held with the EU over a youth mobility scheme? From last year.

4. Could you supply all the instances the ministerial car has been used by John Swinney over the last six weeks and all discussions around him using it, including all documentations held?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you 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 exemptions under sections; 12(1) - Complying will exceed the upper cost limit, 25(1) - Otherwise accessible, 32(1)(b) - Confidential information obtained from abroad, 38(1)(b) - Third party personal data, 39(1) - Endangerment to health or safety, of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained below the question.

1. Could you supply all documentation the Scottish Government holds on Anne's Law and its implementation, including policy notes, correspondence, briefings, minutes and notes from meetings, and also include risk registers and what has been so far to implement it? From the last six months.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is due to the time that would be required to search for, sift through and redact the relevant documentation which falls into the scope of 'implementation documentation', which includes a significant number of emails and documents. 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.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request if there is information on a particular aspect of the implementation of Anne’s Law you are interested in receiving. You may also consider reducing the timeframe of your request. This will assist in bringing down the costs of a further FOI request to below £600. 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.

2. How much has the Scottish Government spent/given out grants on cycle lanes in the past five years, with a breakdown by each year and each project?

Section 25(1) of FOISA exempts information from disclosure where the requester can reasonably obtain the information without making a request for it, considering this I can provide you with the following information. The Active Travel Investments made by Transport Scotland are not separated into cycle lanes or walking paths, the budget will support Active Travel infrastructure that develops safe routes for walking, cycling, or wheeling. The value spent on Active Travel Infrastructure was recently subject to a Parliamentary Question (ref: S6W-27041) covering the last ten years, this is published and can be found on the following link Written question and answer: S6W-27041 | Scottish Parliament Website. We also publish a breakdown of each project we fund annual, these are viewable in documents called “Section 70” reports” you can find these on the Transport Scotland website, for convenience here is a link Section 70 Reports | Transport Scotland.

If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

3. Could you supply all discussions the Scottish has held with the EU over a youth mobility scheme? From last year.

Regarding question 3, 3 documents were found to contain some information within scope and so are partially released. However, we also considered some of the information within those documents to be exempt for reasons, and accordingly, we will only provide version of the documents with that exempted information redacted.

There are numerous reasons for these exemptions being applied, and we have set out further reasoning on each below.

Personal data relating to third party	[Redacted - Section 38(1)(b)]
Confidential information obtained from a state other than the UK	[Redacted - Section 32(1)(b)(i)]
Confidential information obtained from an international organisation or court	[Redacted - Section 32(1)(b)(ii)]

Personal data relating to third parties has been redacted. In determining whether to release the information we considered the following factors:

• Being open and transparent, and publishing who Scottish Government officials meet with and what they discuss;
• Expectations of confidentiality, particularly on candid statements;
• Likely negative impacts that diverging from that expectation of confidentiality would cause, particularly on UK-EU relations.
• The likely negative impacts of harming the Scottish Government’s ability to provide free and frank advice to Ministers based on confidential information received from international partners.
• The lack of a public profile of the interlocutors in question Safety and wellbeing of third parties.
• 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.

Confidential information received from a state other than the UK has also been redacted. In applying the public interest test here, we considered the following factors:

• The public interest of transparency, and publishing who Scottish Government officials meet with and what they discuss;
• Expectations of confidentiality, particularly around possible negotiation positions and candid statements from international partners;
• Likely negative impacts that diverging from that expectation of confidentiality would cause, particularly on the UK’s international relations.
• The likely negative impacts of harming the Scottish Government’s ability to provide free and frank advice to Ministers based on confidential information received from international partners.

​​​​​​​Confidential information received from an international organisation or court has also been redacted. In applying the public interest test here, we considered the following factors:

• The public interest of transparency, and publishing who Scottish Government officials meet with and what they discuss;
• Expectations of confidentiality, particularly around possible negotiation positions and candid statements from international partners; 
• Likely negative impacts that diverging from that expectation of confidentiality would cause, particularly on UK-EU relations.
• The likely negative impacts of harming the Scottish Government’s ability to provide free and frank advice to Ministers based on confidential information received from international partners.

Having weighed up these considerations and where appropriate, considered the public interest, we decided against releasing this exempted information.

4. Could you supply all the instances the ministerial car has been used by John Swinney over the last six weeks and all discussions around him using it, including all documentations held?

An exemption under section 39(1) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested. This is because disclosure would, or would be likely to, endanger the physical or mental health or safety of an individual.

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 the First Minister’s travel. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the safety of the First Minister. Therefore, in accordance with advice from Police Scotland, the First Minister’s car travel arrangements are not published.

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 202400421885 - Information Released - Annex

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