FOI/202600521076 · FOI · already published
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) correspondence: FOI release
Information requested
I refer to the Auditor General’s Section 22 Report on Historic Environment Scotland, published in December 2025.
Please provide the following information:
1. Pre-report governance and financial management Copies of board papers, governance papers, or formal reports describing financial management arrangements and decision-making processes relating to Historic Environment Scotland for the period 1 January 2024 to 31 October 2025.
2. Improvement actions
Documents setting out the agreed actions, improvement plans, or recommendations developed in response to the Auditor General’s Section 22 report.
3. Progress reporting
Any formal progress reports, board updates, or governance papers produced since the publication of the report which describe implementation progress against the agreed improvement actions.
4. Senior-level correspondence
Correspondence between senior officials (SCS grade or equivalent) and Ministers directly relating to the implementation of improvement actions, limited to the period from the publication of the report to the present.
To help manage the cost of this request, I am content for:
Searches to focus on key terms such as “Section 22”, “improvement plan”, “financial governance”, or “governance review”. Information that is already published to be provided by link. Searches for correspondence (point 4) to be limited to exchanges involving senior officials and Ministers only.
Please provide the information electronically, preferably in searchable PDF format.
Response
In the interest of openness and transparency, I have widened the interpretation of your request to include the appointment of a replacement Chair for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) as part of the improvement process to reestablish HES as a high-performing public body.
Regarding part 1 of your request, HES board papers are available online at
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/who-we-are/our-board/board-papers/.
The revised framework document, approved on 22 October 2024, which defines the HES relationship to Scottish Government and its governance is available online at
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/aboutus/who-we-are/corporate-information/framework-document/.
HES Annual Reports and Financial Statements for 2023-24 and 2024-25 are available online at
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/publications/all/publication/?publicationId=62917fd9-2ca6-4a66-8343-b20900a6822b and https://www.historicenvironment.scot/publications/all/publication/? publicationId=2815dbfb-2959-4042-9698-b3b100b7f215.
Regarding part 2 of your request, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for. Please see the attachment ‘FOI 202600521076 – Documents in scope - redacted’.
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 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why this exemption applies is because it relates to personal data of Scottish Government officials who are not senior civil servants, and disclosing such information would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
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.
Additionally, recommendations developed after the publication of the Auditor General’s Section 22 report are set out in the Historic Environment Scotland Organisational and Cultural Review which is available online at
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationid=1e859f2a-5aca-4d95-bd48-b45d00c54460.
Regarding part 3 of your request, the Scottish Government does not hold any formal progress reports or governance papers produced since the publication of the report which describe implementation progress against the agreed improvement actions. However, HES board papers produced after the publication of the report are available online at
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/who-weare/our-board/board-papers/.
Regarding part 4 of your request, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the format you asked for. Please see the attachment ‘FOI 202600521076 – Correspondence in scope - redacted’.
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 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why this exemption applies is because it relates to personal data of Scottish Government officials who are not senior civil servants, and disclosing such information would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
Information requested I refer to the Auditor General’s Section 22 Report on Historic Environment Scotland, published in December 2025. Improvement actions Documents setting out the agreed actions, improvement plans, or recommendations developed in response to the Auditor General’s Section 22 report. To help manage the cost of this request, I am content for: Searches to focus on key terms such as “Section 22”, “improvement plan”, “financial governance”, or “governance review”. 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 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why this exemption applies is because it relates to personal data of Scottish Government officials who are not senior civil servants, and disclosing such information would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation.