Correspondence regarding 2026 Commonwealth Games: FOI Review

Information requested

Orginal Request 202400432710

• Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Glasgow City Council regarding the 2026 Commonwealth games. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between the Cabinet Secretary’s office and Glasgow City Council. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2024 and 18 September 2024 inclusive.
• Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport and Glasgow City Council regarding the 2026 Commonwealth games. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between the Cabinet Secretary’s office and Glasgow City Council. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2024 and 18 September 2024 inclusive.

Response

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

• Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Glasgow City Council regarding the 2026 Commonwealth games. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between the Cabinet Secretary’s office and Glasgow City Council. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2024 and 18 September 2024 inclusive.
• Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport and Glasgow City Council regarding the 2026 Commonwealth games. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between the Cabinet Secretary’s office and Glasgow City Council. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2024 and 18 September 2024 inclusive.

You specifically asked for review of some of the redactions, particularly in reference to document 1, as you would argue some of these attached documents are within the public interest test.

Response to your request

I have concluded that the original decision should be substituted.

You indicated in your review request that you believed that the information withheld under 30(b)(ii) of FOISA was withheld incorrectly. Upon re-examination of the material and reconsideration of the public interest test, I have concluded that this information can be released. This is given the announcement of 22 October 2024 in relation to the 2026 Commonwealth Games, and other information already in the public domain about the event which is similar to content of the letter.

In reviewing this request I have also located one further document that is within scope of your request.

This duplicates the content of the letter at document 1 which is now being released in full. We are only required to provide this information once.

I have also reconsidered the scope of the request and consider that some information that was released as part of your initial request is outwith scope as it is exchanges within the Scottish Government, rather than communications between the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Glasgow City Council.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you 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 an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to sections of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, that is 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.

About FOI

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FOI 202400436291- Information Released - Annex

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