FOI/201900004933 · FOI · clarification
Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme – various questions: FOI release
Information requested
You asked for recorded information held by the Scottish Government that relates to the operation of the Help to Buy scheme, specifically: 1. Copies of all meeting notes, agendas, power point presentations or other materials produced / consumed by members of the Help to Buy (Scotland) Working group since August 23 2017. 2. Copies of any communications with Homes for Scotland and UK Finance members or representatives that relate to the operation of the Help to Buy scheme in Scotland, including communications with Ministers, civil servants or special advisers outwith the working group structures. 3. Details of the private firms that benefited from house sales supported by the Help to Buy subsidy in the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19. This should include the total number of homes sold with subsidy support broken down by year and firm, and the average amount of subsidy provided per unit sold per year. Ideally, it would helpful if this data could be further broken down by council area. You responded to a request for clarification on 14 October. In your response, you confirmed that for part 1 of your request, you are looking for materials relating to the Help to Buy (Scotland) Monitoring Group, and that 23 August 2017 should be taken as the as the earliest date for all the components of your request.
Response
I enclose copies of the information you requested. For part 2 of your request, the following exemption applies to a small amount of some of the information you requested: An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) because it is personal data of a third party, therefore some names/contact details of individuals have been redacted. Disclosing this information 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. There is also some information within the attached documents which is outwith the scope of your request. This information has been redacted. For information, monitoring information for Help to Buy (Scotland) is published on our website at the end of each financial year. You can access the reports here - https://www.gov.scot/policies/homeowners/help-to-buy/.
Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.
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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
For part 2 of your request, the following exemption applies to a small amount of some of the information you requested: An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) because it is personal data of a third party, therefore some names/contact details of individuals have been redacted. Disclosing this information 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.
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