Discretion over publication of reports by the Cabinet Secretary for Health: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202400437154

1. From 8 February 2024 to present, copies of all reports which the Cabinet Secretary for Health had discretion over publication, was given the option of publication, and declined to publish. a) Along with this, please provide communications relating to this decline to publish.

2. From 8 February 2024 to present, a list of all requests for comment (such as from Journalists) to the Cabinet Secretary for Health which were declined.

Response

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

1. From 8 February 2024 to present, copies of all reports which the Cabinet Secretary for Health had discretion over publication, was given the option of publication, and declined to publish. a) Along with this, please provide communications relating to this decline to publish.

2. From 8 February 2024 to present, a list of all requests for comment (such as from Journalists) to the Cabinet Secretary for Health which were declined.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed without modifications.

In your request for a review you stated that you did not believe the claims made to justify the information not held exception.

As part of the review, I checked the searches undertaken for your original request. I can confirm that these did not find any instances where the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care had (1) declined to publish a report or (2) declined to provide comment following a request (such as from a journalist). Where I believed it was required, I contacted several officials who conducted the initial searches to clarify the approaches taken, which I found to be appropriate. I confirmed that searches were undertaken by all Health and Social Care directorates as well as by the Health and Social Care Communications team.

I also undertook my own searches and requested some further searches for completeness in case anything had been missed by the original searches. These searches found no instances where the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care had (1) declined to publish a report or (2) declined to provide comment following a request (such as from a journalist).

I recognise that you did not believe the information provided in the original response to explain that information was not held. I can provide some information on the process of ministerial submissions that may be helpful in understanding why nothing in scope has been found by searches. All ministerial submissions, including those relating to publications, go through quality assurance, which requires clearance by a senior civil servant. This should ensure that publications are of sufficient quality before final versions are shared with ministers. Furthermore, ministers would never have discretion over some publication types including those that are official statistics and social research: for these ministers are invited to note their publication.

I established that your original request was handled in accordance with our procedures and legislative requirements.

As such, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you requested.

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.