FOI/202500464619 - Review of 202500459564 · FOI · partially withheld
Hamilton investigation - publication of report: FOI Review
Information requested
Original Request 202500459564
In regards to the below FOI, request 5:
"In response to your fifth question, Mr Hamilton was advised of the publication of the report at 16:35 on 22 March 2021. He received a link to the publication at 16:39, but was not separately sent a copy by email."
1) Does this mean that Mr Hamilton was not given/did not have cite of a final copy of the report before it was published online or sent to the Scottish Government? Did he read the final copy of the report before sending it to Mr Swinney?
2) Does this mean that he was not required to authorise the final copy of the report?
3) An email which enclosed the final report was sent to Mr Swinney on the 22nd of March, which was signed by Mr Hamilton. Is this correct?
4) Why did it take 16 hours and 33 minutes for the report to be published online once it was received? What was done with the report during this time window? Who accessed/was given sight of the report?
Response
I have now completed my review of our failure to respond to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for: “In regards to the below FOI, request 5:
"In response to your fifth question, Mr Hamilton was advised of the publication of the report at 16:35 on 22 March 2021. He received a link to the publication at 16:39, but was not separately sent a copy by email."
1) Does this mean that Mr Hamilton was not given/did not have cite of a final copy of the report before it was published online or sent to the Scottish Government? Did he read the final copy of the report before sending it to Mr Swinney?
2) Does this mean that he was not required to authorise the final copy of the report?
3) An email which enclosed the final report was sent to Mr Swinney on the 22nd of March, which was signed by Mr Hamilton. Is this correct?
4) Why did it take 16 hours and 33 minutes for the report to be published online once it was received? What was done with the report during this time window? Who accessed/was given sight of the report?” In accordance with section 21(4) of FOISA, I have also reached a decision on your request.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to this request which is due to the volume of Freedom of Information requests being handled by the Propriety and Ethics Directorate. I can now provide our response to your original request.
The answer to your first, second and third questions are that Mr Hamilton provided his report to Ministers via his Secretariat at 00:02 on 22 March 2021, with a covering letter from Mr Hamilton to the Deputy First Minister. Following that, a further version was sent by Mr Hamilton's Secretariat to the Organisational Continuity Team at 08:04 correcting the date of the report to reflect the publication date.
A small number of minor corrections for factual accuracy were made to the report during the course of the day on 22 March 2021, which Mr Hamilton agreed.
The answer to the first 2 parts of your fourth question is that during this time, the report was checked to ensure any factual inaccuracies were corrected, and as previously notified to you in our response to your previous request 202500449875, data protection notices were issued, giving time for the subjects to respond and for their responses to be considered, and the report was prepared for publication on the Scottish Government website. In parallel with the data protection notifications, the report was considered for any redactions required to protect the identity of individuals whose identities are protected by the Contempt of Court orders. This is all in line with the proposed process outlined in the submission to the Deputy First Minister from David Rogers (dated 13 March 2020 (in error at the time of creation) in the material released to you in response to your previous request 202500449875).
In response to the third part of your fourth question our response to your previous FOI 202500449875 shows the recipients of the report in Gavin Henderson's email at 00:07. We also notified you previously of the individuals who had oversight of/directed redactions in our response to your FOI request 202400395463.
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have access to those Freedom of Information responses, then please contact me again and I will send you a copy.
Exemptions under section 30(c), 36(2) and 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information), apply to some of the information requested. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.
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
Who accessed/was given sight of the report?” In accordance with section 21(4) of FOISA, I have also reached a decision on your request. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. Exemptions under section 30(c), 36(2) and 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information), apply to some of the information requested. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.