25-26/001

I refer to your request dated 01 April 2025 for a “copy of the PSA Review Report now delivered to the GTCS” (FOI 25- 26/001) which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA).

Please note that, undersection 27(1) of FOISA, a Public Authority is entitled to exempt records from disclosure if it intends to publish them no later than twelve weeks after the date the request was made. As this record will be published before then, we have applied section 27(1) to this request.

You may contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk if you are dissatisfied with this response, to request GTC Scotland conduct a review of it. You should describe the original request and explain your grounds of review. You have 40 working days from receipt of this response to submit a review request. When the review process has been completed, if you are still dissatisfied, you may use the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal to do so.

We refer to your request for a review dated 21 May 2025 of our initial response of 29 April 2025 to your request of 1 April 2025, which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

Your original request

In your original request you asked the following:

“In keeping with your view on this, please could you send me a copy of the PSA Review Report now delivered to the GTCS.”

On 29 April 2025, we responded to your request by applying section 27(1). On 21 May 2025, you sent an email requesting we review our response in FOI 25-26/001 under section 20(1) of FOISA. You expressed dissatisfaction with our initial response to your information request. We have undertaken a review of our initial response.

Your internal review request

In your review request of 21 May, you state:

I request a review of the response below. To apply section 27(1) of FOISA the authority must have in place, on the date that the request was made, a schedule for release of the information within 12 weeks.

Information that I have received from the PSA indicates that there was no such schedule in place on that date. As you are likely aware, the agreement between PSA and GTCS is that a date will be agreed for release of the report on the website of both organisations. In the absence of such a scheduled release date, section 27(1) cannot be applied. It also cannot be applied now, even if a scheduled release date has now been agreed, because the schedule was not in place when the request was made.

Our response

We are satisfied that we applied the tests in section 27(1) correctly in withholding the requested information from disclosure to you under section 1 of FOISA, for the reasons set out below.

Section 27(1) of FOISA provides that information is exempt from disclosure if it is held with a view to its being published by a Scottish public authority or any other person at a date not later than twelve weeks after that on which the request for the information is made, and when the request is made, the information is already being held with that view.

The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on section 27 of FOISA sets out a three-part test in relation to whether section 27(1) applies, as follows:

(i) Is the information held with the intention to publish it within 12 weeks?

(ii) Can the authority demonstrate that was the intention when the request was made?

(iii) Is it reasonable to withhold the information until the planned date of publication?

We met all three tests in relation to the information that you requested to which we applied section 27(1).

You will note that there is no reference to a scheduled release date in section 27(1). Although a Scottish public authority must hold the information at the time of the request with the intention of its publication within 12 weeks, the exemption does not require a set publication date to be in place. This means that a Scottish public authority may still apply the exemption in section 27(1) if the information is intended for future publication at the time of the request and there is a publication deadline, but publication can be at any date before then.

We can confirm that the information you requested was in fact held at the time of your request with the intention of it being published at a date not later than twelve weeks after the date of your request. In considering your request. By way of further explanation and by reference to the factual position, on 31 March 2025, it was communicated by us that there was a week in May during which the report could be published. The report was published the week afterwards. This timetable for publication had been considered for months leading up to May 2025 and, as intended, the report was published on 22 May 2025. We consider the records provided by FOI 25-26/008 are sufficiently illustrative of that intention.

In applying the exemption in section 27(1) to your request, we also considered whether it was reasonable in all the circumstances that the information be withheld from disclosure into the public domain until such date.

We consider that, as there was a clear intention to publish within 12 weeks of the date of your request, it was reasonable for us to withhold the report from early disclosure into the public domain under FOISA in order to ensure that all actions relating to that intended publication were completed before publication, given the importance of the report and the significant work that had gone into it.

We consider that our approach was not only reasonable, but also sensible and in line with accepted practices in relation to the publication of a report of significance to an authority and commissioned by that authority with a view to its publication.

Section 27(1) is subject to a public interest test under FOISA and so we have considered the public interest in disclosure balanced against the public interest in maintaining this exemption.

We understand that there is a general public interest in public authorities operating as openly and transparently as possible, including publishing important information about the effectiveness of its operations and areas for improvement. However, given that GTC Scotland recognised the importance of these issues, hence taking the initiative to commission the PSA report with a view to publication, that public interest was always going to be satisfied and no additional public interest accrued from its early release under FOISA.

There is also a strong public interest in GTC Scotland being able to adhere to its timescale for publication, in order to ensure that all final arrangements are in place for publication and that the report is made available to all external parties in full at the same time, given the recommendations for change made in the report and the public debate that followed its publication, including gaining national media interest.

On balance, we consider that the public interest in respect of our application of section 27(1) of FOISA lay in favour of maintaining the exemption, rather than disclosing the information to you under FOISA. We therefore uphold our initial response to your request.

If you are dissatisfied with this response to your review request, you have a right of appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner within 6 months of this review response. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal describes the process, including the application form. Further information, including relevant contact details is available on its website.