Documentation on splitting the Lord Advocate role: FOI release

Information requested

1. All documentation held by the Scottish Government about splitting the Lord Advocates role in two, including correspondence (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, reports, analysis and briefings, between April 1 2024 and September 1 2024? (If too much money, reduce time to April 1 2024 to June 1 2024?); and
2. All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or mentioning Tamsin Glass including correspondence (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, reports, analysis and briefings, between April 1 2024 and September 1 2024?

Response

Please find the relevant information below. In our response, we have assumed that you intended to ask for information regarding 'Tasmin Glass'.

Request 1

In relation to your first request, Scottish Government has already released information in this regard in a previous FOI request. This previously released information covered the period 11 March 2024 - 11 June 2024. It is available here:

Lord Advocate and legal advice: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Accordingly, this part of your request is refused under Section 25 of FOISA (exempted information from disclosure where the requester can reasonably obtain the information without asking for it under
FOISA.)

In relation to your request and covering the period of 11 June 2024 - 01 September 2024, please see information provided at Annex A to this letter. 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 38(b)(i) (personal data), 29(1)(a) (formulation of policy under section 29), 36(1) (legal professional privilege) and 30(c) (prejudice to the conduct of public affairs) of FOISA apply to that information.

The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained at Annex B attached to this letter.

Request 2

In relation to your second request, 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. 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.

Your request asks for all documentation held by the Scottish Government about or mentioning Tasmin Glass including correspondence (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, reports, analysis and briefings, between April 1 2024 and September 1 2024. We have conducted searches for any relevant material in relation to both Tamsin Glass, as asked for by you, and Tasmin Glass.

A preliminary search for material returns (187) documents that may be relevant to your request. We estimate it would take 13 minutes per document to locate, retrieve and read, apply any redactions and provide the documents. At a cost of £15 per hour of staff time this brings the cost estimate to £607.75.

However, providing all the information requested would further exceed this estimated figure. This is because that figure only relates to centrally stored electronic documents. There will also be information elsewhere e.g. in other inboxes or physical documents. Therefore the cost would likely significantly exceed the estimated figure. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could indicate the specific topics of
the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific policy area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted.
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

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 202400434654 - Information Released - Annex

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