FOI/202400416088 · FOI · partially withheld
Benny Higgins and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance meetings: FOI release
Information requested
Copies of all email correspondence and minutes/notes of meetings between Benny Higgins and the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Finance (or their private office), from 22nd June 2020 - date.
Response
I enclose a copy of most the information you requested at Annex B of the attachment. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA apply to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below.
Regarding your request for minutes/notes of meetings, details of Ministerial Engagements are published here. There are three meetings within the scope of your request, details of which are found at Annex A of the attachment. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, there are no recorded notes or minutes of these meetings and as such we are unable to provide the requested documents. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
Reasons for not providing information
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested in question (1) because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it 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.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA apply to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Reasons for not providing information An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested in question (1) because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it 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.