FOI/19/00689 Review · FOI · partially withheld
Request for a review of medical research funding: FOI review
Information requested
All information, hard or soft copy, emails, documents or other forms of information covered by the relevant legislation, generated by the above correspondence based on the request for a review of medical research funding. Please highlight the advice the government’s response states it received from Denise Coia to Nicola Sturgeon and Nicola Sturgeon’s direction for you to respond to me on this matter.
Response
Further to my letter of 7 May 2019, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for all information, hard or soft copy, emails, documents or other forms of information covered by the relevant legislation, generated by (previous correspondence). Including but not limited to: information related to Miricyl; Miricyl Scotland; my name and the request for a review of medical research funding. Please highlight the advice the government’s response states it received from Denise Coia to Nicola Sturgeon and Nicola Sturgeon’s direction for you to respond to me on this matter.
I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.
After reviewing the information and the handling of the case, I have concluded that all the information held by the Scottish Government in relation to your request was provided, subject to some information which was redacted under exemptions in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.
I have also reviewed the information that was originally redacted and I have concluded that we are able to provide some of the information that was redacted in our initial response to your request under the following FOISA exemptions: S29(1)(a) formulation or development of Scottish Government policy and S30(b)(ii) free and frank exchange of advice.
I have reached this conclusion because I believe that the public interest in disclosing this information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemptions.
However, some of this information remains redacted because exemptions under 38 (b)(ii) personal data, in FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why this exemption applies are explained in the annex to this letter.
I enclose updated documents with this letter.
Annex
Section 38(1)(b) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names and contact details for a range of people 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 http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
After reviewing the information and the handling of the case, I have concluded that all the information held by the Scottish Government in relation to your request was provided, subject to some information which was redacted under exemptions in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. I have also reviewed the information that was originally redacted and I have concluded that we are able to provide some of the information that was redacted in our initial response to your request under the following FOISA exemptions: S29(1)(a) formulation or development of Scottish Government policy and S30(b)(ii) free and frank exchange of advice. I have reached this conclusion because I believe that the public interest in disclosing this information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemptions. However, some of this information remains redacted because exemptions under 38 (b)(ii) personal data, in FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why this exemption applies are explained in the annex to this letter.