25-26/017

We refer to your request for information (FOI 25-26/017) dated 17 June 2025 which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). Your request was for the following information:

Please provide a copy of all information held in relation to all correspondence over the past 3 months only between the Scottish Government, the First Minster's Office and John Swinney's Constituency Office with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. To include all letters, emails sent and received.

We have disclosed some of the information you requested as a record labelled “FOI 25-26-17-Records", attached to this response. However, we have also withheld some information from you under an exemption in part 1 of FOISA, as explained below.

Section 30(b)(ii)

We have redacted some information where we consider that disclosure would substantially inhibit the free and frank exchange of views between parties, where frank communications of a discursive nature have been entered into in these circumstances of necessity between parties engaging in regular communications and where disclosure of information in response to this request would be likely to have a ‘chilling effect’ in future communications. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 30(b)(ii) of FOISA. Where information has been redacted under section 30(b)(ii), this has been marked in green.

Section 30(c)

We have also redacted some information not covered by section 30(b)(ii) but where we consider that disclosure of certain would have a significantly prejudicial impact on the ability of GTC Scotland and third parties to conduct their affairs. The conduct of affairs includes performing public functions, including joint working on projects whose success will serve the public interest and on matters of public importance. Although we have disclosed as much information between parties in communications falling within the scope of your request, we consider that an element of private space needs to be respected in order to ensure that parties feel that they can share certain information in terms of future joint working. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 30(c) of FOISA. Where information has been redacted under section 30(c) this has been marked in blue.

Both of these exemptions in section 30 of FOISA are subject to a public interest test, which is considered below.

Public interest test

We consider that there is a public interest in GTC Scotland and other public authorities operating in as transparent a manner as possible on projects of public importance such as those documented in the information you have requested. We note that the bodies whose interactions are recorded in the information you have requested have engaged in a range of stakeholder consultations on the matters and the information we have provided to you records the inputs and outputs to those consultations. This reflects a significant element of transparency to date in terms of disclosing information into the public domain on these matters. However, if the various interactions, projects and initiatives documented in the requested information are going to succeed in achieving their aims, the integrity of the interactions does require to be frank in both what information is exchanged and how opinions are shared.

We consider that there is a strong public interest in both ensuring the integrity of interactions going forward in these projects, as a key element in ensuring the sustainability and overall success of some important initiatives. For that reason, where we have applied the exemptions in section 30(b)(ii) and 30 (c) of FOISA, we consider that the public interest in maintaining these exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the information that has been withheld.

Section 38(1)(a)

Where the information contained in the documents is your personal data, we have withheld this from you under the exemption in section 38(1)(a) of FOISA, as it is absolutely exempt from disclosure into the public domain under FOISA. However, if you wish to request your personal data, please let us know and we will treat this as a subject access request under Article 15 of the UK GDPR. This exemption is not subject to a public interest test under FOISA.

Section 38(1)(b)

We have also withheld some information from disclosure to you because it is third party personal data that identifies living individuals directly or indirectly, that relates to those individuals, and where we consider that disclosing this information into the public domain would be beyond the reasonable expectation of those individuals. Such disclosure would in our view be unfair, and thereby unlawful in terms of the data protection principle of fair, lawful and transparent processing contained in Article 5(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

We have reached this view based on all the relevant facts and circumstances of the case in respect of each individual. This information has been withheld from disclosure to you under the exemption contained in section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, read with section 38(2A)(a). This exemption is not subject to a public interest test under FOISA. Where information has been redacted under section 38(1)(b), this has been marked in black.

Advice and Assistance

By way of reasonable advice and assistance, we note that some of the information contained in emails that we hold in the form of chains of communication make reference to attachments. Where we have established that we hold these our attachments through our search, we have included these in the scope of the information falling within the scope of your request. However, in a number of cases our search indicates that we do not hold these attachments as they have not been saved in the chain of emails saved onto our systems.

Right to review and appeal

You may request a review of how we have dealt with this information request if you are dissatisfied with this response. This can be done by contacting us at informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk, describing your original request and explaining the basis for your dissatisfaction. 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.