Gifts given by Scottish Government Ministers: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202400426991

1. A list of gifts given by Scottish Government Ministers during external meetings and overseas travel to, for example, other Ministers etc over the last five years.

2. Please include (i) the Scottish Government Minister who gave the gift, (ii) the individual who received the gift, and (iii) the price of this gift.

Response

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

1. A list of gifts given by Scottish Government Ministers during external meetings and overseas travel to, for example, other Ministers etc over the last five years.

2. Please include (i) the Scottish Government Minister who gave the gift, (ii) the individual who received the gift, and (iii) the price of this gift.

In your review request you indicate:

Thank you for getting back to me. There were a few spots where information wasn’t provided:

• On 6 November 2019, Ms Freeman sent two gifts but the name/title of the recipients are not provided.
• On 7 November 2019, Mr McKee sent five gifts but the cost of these gifts are not provided.
• On 15 November 2023, Mr Robertson sent a gift to Vice President of CPAFFC but the cost of this gift is not provided.
• On 21 December 2023, the First Minister sent a gift but the cost of this gift is not provided.
• On 15 April, the First Minister sent a gift but the cost of this gift is not provided.

Could I please have this information? Or would it be possible to have an explanation why it isn’t provided?

Also, information for 2021 and 2022 aren’t provided. Is this because no gifts were given?

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with modifications. I am upholding the application of Section 17(1) of FOISA, however I am withdrawing the requirement for Section 25(1).

I feel the original response could have been clearer where information is not held by the Scottish Government. I have reviewed the information and can confirm the Scottish Government does not hold some of the information regarding Ministers, costs and recipients. Where this is the case it has been denoted as "Information not held" within Annex A. Information relating to Ministers may not be available because the gift(s) presented was on behalf of all Scottish Ministers or a Minister did not attend the event. Alternatively it could be because the information was not recorded. Information relating to cost may not be available due to items being purchased for a previous event and not used.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

In the original response the 2021, 2022 and part of the 2023 information was withheld and exemption section 25(1) of FOISA applied as the information was considered readily accessible elsewhere via a previous FOI response. I have decided to withdraw the requirement of this exemption and provide the information for all of the years in one document at Annex A.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400431907 - Information released - Annex A

File type

16 page PDF

File size

293.1 kB