Meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (SGoRR) in January, February and March 2020: FOI release

Information requested

1. On which dates in January, February and March 2020 did the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (SGoRR) meet to consider Covid-19?
2. For each such meeting I ask for copies of the Minutes of the meeting.
3. For each such meeting I ask for copies of the papers that were considered by the Committee.

Response

In response to your request, the Scottish Government Resilience Committee hosts meetings generally referred to as SGoRR(O) and SGoRR(M). The dates of the meetings held in January, February and March 2020, as well as some of the minutes and papers are provided at Annex A.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because exemptions under section 3(2)(a)(ii), 25(1), 28(1) 31 of the Act apply to that information. The exemptions applied are contained in the annex.

Some of the information that you have requested has been withheld on the grounds that release would substantially prejudice relations between Scottish Government (SG) and UK Government (UKG) as the information is held by SG in confidence. The relevant sections are:

• section 3(2)(a)(ii) to consider the information 'held in confidence' (and therefore not 'held' at all, for the purposes of FOISA)
• section 28(1) (substantial prejudice to relations within the United Kingdom)

An exemption under section 25(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption applies because some of the information you requested has already been released in a previous Freedom of Information request.

The information is available here. Scottish Government Resilience Room minutes from February and March 2020: FOI appeal - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). https://www.gov.scot/news/coronavirus-covid-19/

These exemptions are subject to the “public interest test”. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances in this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemptions. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate.

However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the harm that would be caused to the relationships between administrations in the UK by release.

Finally, some of the information you have requested is exempt under section 31 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which exempts information from release if it is required for the purpose of safeguarding national security.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - ANNEX A

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