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FOI/202500490553 · FOI · unclear

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests refused under Section 12 statistics: FOI release

Published
2026-01-21
Received
2025-10-23
Responded
2025-11-10
Directorate
Communications and Ministerial Support Directorate
Topic
Public sector
Exemptions
12

Information requested

Could you supply the number of FOI requests wholly or partially refused under Section 12 of FOISA for financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025, broken down by year.

Response

The answer to your question is within the table below, the date range applied has been from cases completed from 1 April 2020 to 30 March 2025;

Financial Year Number of Requests and Reviews where s12 was applied 2020/2021 182 2021/2022 201 2022/2023 189 2023/2024 248 2024/2025 302

To provide further clarity on the figures above: FOI requests have grown steadily since 2020. Between the calendar years 2020 and 2024, our request numbers rose by 65% (from 3.3k to 5.8k) and continue to increase. The numbers shown in the tables indicate that the proportion of cases where section 12 has been applied remains broadly the same; it is the overall volume of FOI requests that has risen.

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.

Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG

Detected exemption language

Information requested Could you supply the number of FOI requests wholly or partially refused under Section 12 of FOISA for financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025, broken down by year. The numbers shown in the tables indicate that the proportion of cases where section 12 has been applied remains broadly the same; it is the overall volume of FOI requests that has risen.

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