Travel and accommodation costs for members of Council of Economic Advisors
Mr Tom Gordon requested from the Scottish Ministers (the Ministers) details of travel and accommodation costs for members of Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).
The Ministers responded by withholding the information in terms of section 38(1)(b) of FOISA.
Following a review, during which the Ministers released the majority of the information to Mr Gordon, but withheld details of the start and end points of journeys undertaken by CEA members in terms of 38(1)(b) of FOISA, Mr Gordon remained dissatisfied and applied to the Commissioner for a decision.
Following an investigation, during which the Ministers additionally applied the exemption at section 30(c) of FOISA to the withheld information, the Commissioner found that the Ministers had partially failed to deal with Mr Gordon’s request for information in accordance with Part 1 of FOISA.
The Commissioner found that the Ministers had correctly withheld information constituting personal addresses of CEA members. He did not however accept that disclosure of the remaining information would breach any of the data protection principles nor that it would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs. He required the Ministers to release the relevant information to Mr Gordon.
Citations:
[2010] ScotIC 033 – 2010
Links:
Scotland, Information
Updated: 08 September 2022; Ref: scu.433773