Correspondence between the Scottish Government and BBC Question Time producers: FOI Review

Information requested

 Orginal Request 202400422148

“I'd like to request a review for the above FOI, specifically the second question: Could you supply all correspondence between the Scottish Government and BBC Question Time producers, including complaints and internal correspondence, from the last six months?

-If too much, reduce the time period to three months? The exemption says it will be published in the next 12 weeks, but doesn't say what it will be published as. As far as I can see, the Scottish Government don't publish its correspondence with the BBC Question Time producers unless it's an FOI request so I'd like to find out what it is being published as and when, and if you can't supply this, can you send me the information I asked for?”

Response

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

“I'd like to request a review for the above FOI, specifically the second question: Could you supply all correspondence between the Scottish Government and BBC Question Time producers, including complaints and internal correspondence, from the last six months?

-If too much, reduce the time period to three months?
The exemption says it will be published in the next 12 weeks, but doesn't say what it will be published as. As far as I can see, the Scottish Government don't publish its correspondence with the BBC Question Time producers unless it's an FOI request so I'd like to find out what it is being published as and when, and if you can't supply this, can you send me the information I asked for?”

I have concluded that a new decision should be substituted. A new decision is being substituted as we did not publish all the information requested since it was subject to exemptions, as it was part of a previous FoI response. Therefore, the exemption of section 27(1) could not be applied correctly. The information previously released has now been reviewed afresh as part of the review request as it should have been reviewed and reconsidered as part of the original response. I apologise that this was not done so correctly at the time the request was received.

I have attached most of the correspondence 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 exemptions under sections of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below.

An exemption under section 30(b)(ii) “Free and frank exchange of views” of FOISA applies to some of the information requested. One email chain has been withheld which relates to a discussion of which Scottish Government minister could attend Question Time. This exemption recognises the need for officials to have a private space for the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. Disclosing the content of free and frank exchange of views would inhibit the exchange of views in future between officials, and between officials and Ministers.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’.

We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space within which issues can be explored and refined to enable the Government as a whole to reach a decision that is sound and likely to be effective. This private thinking space also allows for all options to be properly considered, so that good decisions can be taken.

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 exemptions. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) ”Personal Information” of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, 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.

Outwith the review decision under FOISA, I can confirm that a response to a separate FOISA request for: “Any emails sent from Scottish government email addresses, between 27 March 2023 and 21 June 2024, containing references to the BBC Question Time programme” was issued on 11 July 2024. The original case handler undertook searches which confirmed there was no further correspondence beyond what had been released as part of this response. This response was published on 8 August and can be found online at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400420003/.

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 202400428258 - Information Released - Annex

File type

13 page PDF

File size

1.2 MB