· FOI · partially withheld
Information relating to retirement of Sheriff Andrew Lothian: FOI release
Information requested
Information contained in documents, meetings, communications and discussions relating to the retirement of Sheriff Andrew Lothian; any payments made by the Scottish Government, Scottish Court Service or judiciary to Sheriff & retired Sheriff Andrew Lothian upon his retirement; and any correspondence to/from retired Sheriff Andrew Lothian to the date of this FOI request.
Response
I enclose copies of the information you requested.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why the exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.
In addition, some of the information you have requested is not held by the Scottish Government for the purposes of FOISA because we received it in confidence from the UK Government. This means that, under the terms of section 3(2)(a)(ii) of FOISA, we are unable to disclose it in response to your request. However, you may wish to submit a new request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) to the Ministry of Justice at Judicial Pay and Pensions, 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ, or at data.access@justice.gsi.gov.uk who should be able to help you further.
Reasons for not providing information
An exemption applies.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested (including personal telephone details of a Scottish Government official, names and contact details of officials below the level of the Senior Civil Service, address details that might identify a living person, bank account details which might be a joint account, the name of a spouse and details of a widow's pension). This exemption applies because the information is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.
Detected exemption language
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why the exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter. This means that, under the terms of section 3(2)(a)(ii) of FOISA, we are unable to disclose it in response to your request. Reasons for not providing information An exemption applies. An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested (including personal telephone details of a Scottish Government official, names and contact details of officials below the level of the Senior Civil Service, address details that might identify a living person, bank account details which might be a joint account, the name of a spouse and details of a widow's pension).