Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture's attendance at the Cameo cinema, Edinburgh: FOI release

Information requested

How many Scottish Government officials accompanied Mr Robertson to this ministerial engagement?

Did Mr Robertson's wife, partner or other guest accompany him during the engagement or on the car journeys either side of it?

If so, why?

Please supply all information in the itinerary for the engagements at the Cameo cinema and Central Hall and in the ministerial briefing given to Mr Robertson for these engagements and all resulting notes or minutes.

Please also supply all information in the correspondence between Mr Robertson, or his office, and the person or body which invited him, in relation to his attendance.

This should include, but not be limited to, all information in the invitation and in any follow-up correspondence.

Please also supply the government car service log for Mr Robertson's car journey from St Andrew's House to the Cameo cinema and the log for the journey from Central Hall, West Tollcross, to the next personal address.

Response

In response to part one of your question, ‘How many Scottish Government officials accompanied Mr Robertson to this ministerial engagement?’ The answer is one.

In response to part two of your question, ‘Did Mr Robertson's wife, partner or other guest accompany him during the engagement or on the car journeys either side of it? If so, why?’ Mr Robertson’s wife and two other guests accompanied him to the event at the invitation of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. While the Scottish Government does not hold information about whether Mr Robertson’s wife accompanied him in a Government Car Service vehicle prior to or after the event, Mr Robertson has advised that he travelled alone to the venue, but that his wife accompanied him home afterwards.

In response to parts three and four of your question, ‘Please supply all information in the itinerary for the engagements at the Cameo cinema and Central Hall and in the ministerial briefing given to Mr Robertson for these engagements and all resulting notes or minutes. Please also supply all information

in the correspondence between Mr Robertson, or his office, and the person or body which invited him, in relation to his attendance. This should include, but not be limited to, all information in the invitation and in any follow-up correspondence’, I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested.

In relation to part five of your request, ‘Please also supply the government car service log for Mr Robertson's car journey from St Andrew's House to the Cameo cinema and the log for the journey from Central Hall, West Tollcross, to the next personal address, Some of the information you have requested is available from Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

An exemption under section 29(1)(d) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested as this relates to the operation of a Ministerial private office.

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. The reasons why that exemption applies is because we redact the names and direct contact details for Scottish Government staff below senior civil service level of the organisation. We have also redacted the personal information of individuals external to the Scottish Government. We consider that disclosing this information would contravene the first data protection principle in Articles 5(1)(a) of the GDPR.

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 202400442650 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

363.1 kB