Independence referendum speeches prepared for former First Minister: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide any communication, drafts and information relating to speeches prepared for former FM Alex Salmond for the outcome of the independence referendum in 2014.

Please include information on potential speeches prepared for the outcome of independence.

Response

After conducting searches of our records, we have not identified any draft speeches prepared for the former First Minister, Alex Salmond, for the outcome of the independence referendum held on 18 September 2014. Outwith FOISA, it might be helpful to explain that while the civil service was initially engaged to prepare draft speech material for the outcome of the 2014 independence referendum, ultimately, the former First Minister took the decision to prepare his own speech, without support from the civil service. In line with our standard records management practice, draft speech content prepared by officials which is no longer required by Ministers is not usually retained as there is no business need to do this. 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.

A small amount of information has been identified mentioning speeches prepared for the former First Minister, and this is enclosed in the Annex of this letter. An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of this information because it is the 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 whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

On 19 September 2014, when the result of the independence referendum was known, the former First Minister gave a statement which can be found online at the link below. Scottish Government officials were not involved in the drafting of this.

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] First Minister on referendum outcome (nrscotland.gov.uk)

You may also find it helpful to note that on 16 September 2015, the Daily Record newspaper published an article featuring text of a speech which Mr Salmond indicated would have been used if the independence referendum had resulted in a Yes vote. I can however, confirm that Scottish Government officials had no involvement with the drafting of it. The article can be found at the link below.

'We are a nation reborn': Alex Salmond's victory speech should Scotland have voted YES in referendum is revealed - Daily Record

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 202400436354 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

78.7 kB