FOI/202600529231 Review of 202600524205 · FOI · partially withheld
Information relating to the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026 and its implications for healthcare professionals: FOI Review
Information requested
Original request 202600524205
In Annex D disclosed under Scottish Government FOI reference 202600516504, officials refer to a short explainer concerning the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026 and its implications for healthcare professionals. Please provide:
1. All versions and drafts of the explainer referred to in Annex D, including any attachments, working copies and final versions.
2. All recorded internal comments, tracked changes, briefing notes, emails, messages, meeting notes or other discussions concerning the drafting, review, amendment, approval, intended use or publication of the explainer.
3. The names, job titles and teams of the officials responsible for drafting, reviewing and approving the explainer. Where personal information is withheld, please provide the relevant job titles, teams and functions.
4. All records discussing whether the explainer should be published, distributed, withheld, revised or circulated internally or externally.
5. All records showing which external organisations or individuals received, reviewed, commented on or were sent the explainer, together with any feedback or comments received.
6. Any distribution list, circulation list, publication plan or communications plan relating to the explainer.
Electronic copies are sufficient. PDF format is preferred where applicable, with emails supplied in a readable electronic format.
If any part of this request overlaps with previous correspondence or disclosure, please treat it as a fresh request for any recorded information not already disclosed and identify any material said to have been disclosed previously.
Response
I have now completed my review of our response to your request (202600524205) under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:
1. All versions and drafts of the explainer referred to in Annex D, including any attachments, working copies and final versions.
2. All recorded internal comments, tracked changes, briefing notes, emails, messages, meeting notes or other discussions concerning the drafting, review, amendment, approval, intended use or publication of the explainer.
3. The names, job titles and teams of the officials responsible for drafting, reviewing and approving the explainer. Where personal information is withheld, please provide the relevant job titles, teams and functions.
4. All records discussing whether the explainer should be published, distributed, withheld, revised or circulated internally or externally.
5. All records showing which external organisations or individuals received, reviewed, commented on or were sent the explainer, together with any feedback or comments received.
6. Any distribution list, circulation list, publication plan or communications plan relating to the explainer.
Requirement for review
In your email of 24 July 2026, you express your dissatisfaction with our original response and ask for a review with the following requests:
1. Conduct fresh and adequately documented searches across all relevant teams, systems and officials; 2. Reconsider the application of section 30(c) separately for each record or meaningful category of information; 3. Conduct a fresh public-interest test which takes account of the document’s external circulation and intended influence upon advice to prospective students; 4. Disclose all information that does not meet the statutory threshold for withholding; 5. consider partial disclosure with limited redactions; 6. Provide a schedule of records where any information remains withheld; 7. Provide the requested job titles, teams and functions, and reconsider the withholding of officials’ names; 8. Disclose the correspondence and transmission records involving Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland; 9. Reconsider the section 17 notice separately for each category within part 6; 10. Provide the precise location and identifying details of the final version said to be available under section 25.
Response to requirement for review
For the purposes of this review, a full search was conducted of the Scottish Government’s corporate record system, alongside searches of the relevant policy officials’ Microsoft email and SharePoint accounts. Case 202600524205 was reviewed, considering the points raised in your correspondence.
1. The document in question (entitled ‘Explainer – NSP Act – Practitioners and Settings’) was released under Annex D of case 202600516504. This was the final draft of a document developed by the Quality and Safety policy team under the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Division at Scottish Government. For ease, the text is provided again under Annex 1. The search confirmed that this is the current and final version of the document.
2. The ‘Explainer’ document was developed within Microsoft SharePoint by officials within the Quality and Safety policy team. Amendments, tracked changes and comments are recorded within the versioning logs of the document. As requested, each individual change was assessed to consider the appropriate application of Section(c) exemption and the public interest test. On review, Section 30(c) is considered an appropriate exemption to use for all iterations (as opposed to 30(a) and 30(b)). This considered the content of the overall document, the content of each amendment and comment, and confirmation that there was no evidence of Ministerial involvement, contributions or comment from other policy teams or from external sources that contributed to any aspect of the document.
3. The ‘Explainer’ document was, as indicated in your request, shared as a draft externally with three organisations: Healthcare Improvement Scotland on the 21st May 2026, Glasgow Caledonian University on the 27th May 2026 and the University of West of Scotland on 11th June 2026. There is no evidence that feedback or comments received from these organisations influenced or affected the content of the document, and no evidence that any amendments were made to the ‘Explainer’ document text from the 21st May 2026 to the present date. As set out above, the decision to withhold all drafts of the ‘Explainer’ draft is supported by this review and I do not consider there to be a public benefit to releasing this material that would outweigh the ability of officials to conduct work to the overall benefit of the public.
4-6. The decision to withhold, rather than release with redactions, all drafts and amendments to the ‘Explainer’ document was reviewed and is upheld by this review. This decision considers the content of the ‘Explainer’ document, the content of each individual iteration and comment, the officials involved in drafting and the lack of evidence to support the involvement or contribution of any other parties.
7. We cannot release the names of the officials involved. Scottish Government’s organisational policy is to redact officials’ names below Senior Civil Service grades. We can release roles of officials involved as: Healthcare Quality and Improvement Unit Head, Healthcare Quality and Improvement Team Lead and Quality and Safety Senior Policy Officials.
8. The search, as above, confirmed that three organisations were emailed the ‘Explainer’ document as a draft. The document text and the redacted email content are provided in Appendix 1. The text of the ‘Explainer’ document was checked on a lineby- line basis and confirmed as identical. This provides, as requested, the dates on which the document was supplied, the explanation provided of its status, purpose and intended use. It does not provide the recipient names or roles which have been redacted. No evidence was found of any internal instructions authorising or arranging circulation to these three bodies.
9. The search looked for and found no evidence of any of the following in relation to the ‘Explainer’ document:
a) a distribution list b) a circulation list c) a publication plan d) a communications plan e) transmission or circulation records f) records identifying intended or actual recipients.
Section 17, therefore, was assessed to each in turn and considered to apply in each case.
10. The ‘Explainer’ document was provided in Appendix D of FOI 202600516504. The document text is provided for ease in Appendix 1. It is entitled ‘Explainer – NSP Act – Practitioners and Settings’. There is no location information that can be provided because there is no further evidence that the text was published or posted by Scottish Government.
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
Reconsider the application of section 30(c) separately for each record or meaningful category of information; 3. Reconsider the section 17 notice separately for each category within part 6; 10. Provide the precise location and identifying details of the final version said to be available under section 25. As requested, each individual change was assessed to consider the appropriate application of Section(c) exemption and the public interest test. On review, Section 30(c) is considered an appropriate exemption to use for all iterations (as opposed to 30(a) and 30(b)).