List of Freedom of Information requests submitted: FOI release

Information requested

In FOI Request Number 202400432136, it was disclosed that 'Journalist A' of the Daily Express, has submitted 353 FOI/EIR Requests so far in 2024.

I would like to request, under the FOI Scotland Act, the following information:

• A list of the text of all FOI requests made by this requester.
• With requests that were refused because of cost limit to be flagged in some way.

I am only seeking the texts of the requests themselves, not any additional material such as the responses, dates they were submitted nor where they were allocated to within the Government etc. (If, however, it is easier or cheaper to present this information alongside some of this, then I am happy for this to be done). I am aware that many requests will have been published on the Scottish Government website already, but (i) many will not have been, and (ii) they are not published with any information with allows the reader to connect FOI requests across requesters, and it is this information/context that I am interested in.

The public interest in this information is as follows. The overall cost to the public purse of operating the FOI regime is a matter of public interest in and of itself. Where that burden falls, and for what purposes, is essential information if a debate is to be conducted about that burden. Each FOI request costs up to 600 pounds (and potentially more). Even from the information that 353 overall requests have been submitted by Journalist A, there is no way of knowing how many individual or separate requests for information that figure represents.

It is possible that providing this information would breach the cost limit, though I hope systems are sufficiently sophisticated to be able to extract this information easily. If that is so, can I ask you to keep it within cost limit in the following way:

• Firstly, if there is a risk of the cost limit being exceeded, there is no need to flag requests that were refused because of the cost limit itself.
• Secondly, if it is processing the volume of requests that pushes it beyond the cost limit, can I ask you to begin at the start of 2024 and process as many requests as you can chronologically, until the cost limit is or would be breached.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government Website. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The references of requests from journalist A already published are in attachment A.

The text of the requests from Journalist A which have not yet been published are provided in attachment B.

Please note that some of our cases are split at receipt in order to ensure the correct area within SG deals with this. I have noted cases where there may be duplicate questions as our data does not provide the split we have created. All the text is included.

I have also noted those which have had Section 12 applied.

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 202400436151 - Information Released - Annex

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