Details of lobbying of Scottish Ministers by Propertymark: FOI release

Information requested

Information pertaining to the lobbying of Scottish Ministers and MSPs, specifically:

A full list of Scottish Ministers and MSPs who have been lobbied by Propertymark in the time period of 2020-2025. For any meetings, please provide minutes covering any agendas, requests, or key topics raised by Propertymark. If minutes are not available for some meetings, please provide the entry in the lobbying register describing topics and requests covered.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Lobbying Register. 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 listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The Lobbying Register is an online, public and fully searchable register which is available at www.lobbying.scot. It includes “regulated lobbying” with:

• Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs)
• Members of the Scottish Government (including Scottish Law Officers)
• Junior Scottish ministers
• Scottish Government special advisers
• The Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government

The Scottish Parliament is responsible for overseeing and the day-to-day operation of the register and the requirement to register any lobbying activity lies with those who lobby, not with Ministers or their support staff. As a result, the Scottish Government has no reason to record instances of lobbying internally.

You also asked for minutes covering any agendas, requests, or key topics raised by Propertymark for any lobbying meetings. I enclose a copy of the information we hold in this regard, subject to the following exemption.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, for example 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 if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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 202500448567 - Information released - Annex

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