Deputy First Minister, Kevin Stewart MSP and Dick Winchester correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

Any notes or minutes of a meeting between Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, and Dick Winchester, which took place on 16th July 2024.

Please also provide all correspondence between Dick Winchester and the Deputy First Minister (and/or her office) from 8th May 2024 - date.

Finally, please provide all correspondence between Kevin Stewart MSP and the Deputy First Minister (and/or her office) from 8th May 2024 – date.

Response

I enclose a copy of the information you requested.

Regarding your request to provide all correspondence between Dick Winchester and the Deputy First Minister (and/or her office) from 8th May 2024 - date. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have 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(s) under section(s) s.38(1)(b) (personal information) & s.27(1) (Information intended for future publication) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exemption applies

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) also applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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.

An exemption applies, subject to the public interest test

An exemption under Section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. The information requested will be published within 12 weeks of your request and will be available at the link below:

Details of all Ministerial engagements are proactively published by the Scottish Government. This includes diary information of the DFM . This transparency data can be accessed via this weblink:  https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/

This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 202400423241 - Information released - Documents

File type

27 page PDF

File size

845.4 kB