Correspondence relating to Winter Fuel Payment discussions: FOI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence between the Scottish Government and the UK Government regarding the winter fuel payment since 1st of August 2024

2. All correspondence between the First Minister and the Prime Minister regarding the winter fuel payment since 1st of August 2024

3. All correspondence between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government and the UK Chancellor regarding the winter fuel payment since 1st of August 2024

Response

Scope

When responding to your request, we interpreted ‘winter fuel payment’ as being relevant to the UK Government’s Winter Fuel Payment and the Social Security Scotland devolved equivalent, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment. We took "correspondence between the Scottish Government and the UK Government" to mean all correspondence from officials as well as UK Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

Question 1

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing all correspondence between the Scottish Government and the UK Government regarding winter fuel payments since 1 August 2024 as requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct searches of all of the records kept by relevant teams within the Scottish Government and process all documents found in these searches. Calculations based on the number of documents found in initial searches indicated this would take more than 40 hours to complete. 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.

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 specify the subject matter(s) of the Winter Fuel Payment correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific part 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.

You may also wish to refer to the response to FOI 202400432128 on Pension Age Winter Heating Payment correspondence as this covers some of the information you requested.

Question 2

Our aim is to provide information whenever possible. However, in this instance, the information you have requested, correspondence between the First Minister and the Prime Minister regarding the winter fuel payment since 1 August 2024 is not held by the Scottish Government for the purposes of FOISA because we received it in confidence from the UK Government. This means that, under the terms of section 3(2)(a) (ii) of FOISA, we are unable to disclose it in response to your request. However, you may wish to submit a new request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) to the Department for Work and Pensions at freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gov.uk.

Question 3

The relevant teams have conducted searches and we have attached one letter sent from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer dated 17 October 2024.

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 202400438073 - Information released - Annex

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