Scottish Government policy on publishing FOI responses: FOI release

Information requested

What is the Scottish Government policy on publishing FOI responses?

Please send any written guidance or documents outlining the procedure.

How many FOI responses have been issued so far in calendar year 2023 and of those how many have been published on the Scottish Government website?

Please give a reason why unpublished responses were not shared proactively.

Response

For the purposes of responding to this request I have interpreted that the term 'FoI' refers both to requests and reviews received under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOI(S)A) and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRS) .

Please find below most of the information you requested and for ease, I have answered each of your questions in turn.

What is the Scottish Government policy on publishing FOI responses?

All of the information you have requested to answer this question is available from the attached document – “FoI Publication Policy”.

There is also wider guidance published on our website: Guide to information published by the Scottish Government - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

How many FOI responses have been issued so far in calendar year 2023?

I have interpreted 'FOI responses.....issued' as the number of requests and reviews which have been answered under either the legislation of FOI(S)A or the regime of the EIRs within the timeframe of your request regardless of the statutory deadline for response. This I have explained further below. I have also interpreted 'calendar year' as being from 1st January 2023 to 27th June 2023 (the date we received your request).

The total number of responses that have been issued, under both FOI(S)A and EIRs between 1st January and 27th June 2023 is 2,777. This number includes the responses to cases that were completed, but no information released, for example where cases were identified as being invalid requests for information and the appropriate response was issued to the applicant.

How many have been published on the Scottish Government website? Please give a reason why unpublished responses were not shared proactively.

There are a range of reasons why issued responses may not appear on our website and these are detailed in the attached publications policy. They include, for example, requests where we do not hold any information, or which have been refused on the grounds of excessive cost. Cases will also be waiting to be uploaded to the website.

The number of responses that have been published between 1st January and 27th June 2023 inclusive is 613.We are currently prioritising work to clear a backlog of issued cases waiting to be published on our website which has occurred due to staffing and process pressures.

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.

Publication policy - 202300363939

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