Scottish Government and Scottish Hospitals Inquiry Data Controller: FOI Review

Information requested

Orginal Request 202400422860

“… if the Scottish Government and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry are the Joint Data Controller. Can you please confirm if the Scottish Government has any agreements between the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and itself.”

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) which asked:

“… if the Scottish Government and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry are the Joint Data Controller. Can you please confirm if the Scottish Government has any agreements between the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and itself.”

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

When preparing our original response, we interpreted the second part of your request to be asking if there are any agreements in place between the Scottish Government and Scottish Hospitals Inquiry in relation to being joint data controllers. However, you requested a review of our initial response, advising:

“My second part of the request was to check if there are any agreements in between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry. It did not limit this to data protection matters, it was simply to provide some context. Had there been any confusion I would had expected FOI to clarify the request.”

I have considered your request for a review and have concluded that our initial request interpreted the second part of your request differently than you had intended. Please see our response below which sets out the agreements in place between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry:

• I can confirm that there is a Management Agreement in place between the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and the Scottish Government. This agreement sets out how key matters relating to finance and governance are dealt with between the Scottish Government, as sole funders for the Inquiry, and the Inquiry in meeting its responsibilities under the Inquiries Act 2005 and the Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007.
• As a customer of the Scottish Government Information and Technology Services Division (iTECs), the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry has also agreed to iTECs Terms of Supply under which iTECs supplies information and communication technology related services.

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.