FOI/202500483252 · FOI · partially withheld
Advance sight of “Your Right To Decide” before publication information: FOI release
Information requested
All people outside the Scottish Government who had advance sight of “Your Right To Decide” before its publication on 4th September 2025. If they cannot be named, please state the organisation they work for, and their position.
Response
Staff from a range of media outlets were sent an embargoed copy of the publication to which you refer shortly before it became publicly available. Details of the organisations contacted are enclosed in the Annex of this letter. This was done via an email distribution list, meaning the only information we hold are names and email addresses, and no information on specific job titles these individuals hold within their respective organisations. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.
An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA (Personal Information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is the personal data of a third party, i.e. names of individuals, and disclosing this 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.
I can also confirm that no other individuals or organisations external to the Scottish Government were given advance sight of this publication.
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.
Detected exemption language
This is a formal notice under S.17(1) that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) of FOISA (Personal Information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is the personal data of a third party, i.e. names of individuals, and disclosing this 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.