Briefings provided to former First Minister regarding tax avoidance: FOI release

Information requested

All briefings Nicola Sturgeon received or requested whilst First Minister between 1 May 2021 and 25 March 2023 about tax avoidance. Please provide all briefing documents given to Nicola Sturgeon by Scottish Government officials during this time that were primarily on the subject of tax avoidance. This should include any documents which include the term tax avoidance or details any methods by which taxpayers may seek to reduce their tax burden.

Any changes or edits requested by any Scottish Minister to the Framework for Tax 2021 document from the first draft until the final version was approved and published. In addition, which Scottish Minister(s) signed off/approved this document?

All briefings Humza Yousaf received or requested whilst First Minister between 28 March 2023 and 6 May 2024 about tax avoidance. Please provide all briefing documents given to Humza Yousaf by Scottish Government officials during this time that were primarily on the subject of tax avoidance. This should include any documents which include the term tax avoidance or details any methods by which taxpayers may seek to reduce their tax burden.

Response

I enclose a copy of relevant documents pursuant to your request in the attached Annex.

Exemption applied

An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details, 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.

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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 202400438948 - Information released - Annex

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