Thread by @MrMcEnaney

THREAD
Yesterday I published a blog post analysing a new batch of documents that provide an extraordinary insight into the Scottish Government's #FOI policies and culture.

This thread contains some of the highlights and the full post is here:

jmcemedia.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/sen…

The documents are briefings intended to help prep key individuals before they were interviewed by the Scottish Information Commissioner as part of the recent investigation into the Scottish Government's handling of FOI.

The people who received a briefing were as follows:

•John Swinney (MSP)
•Keith Brown (MSP)
•Shona Robison (MSP)
•Davie Hutchison (SPAD)
•Liz Lloyd (SPAD)
•Colin McAllister (SPAD)
•Stewart Maxwell (SPAD)
•An official from the SPAD Private Office (whose name is redacted)

Each briefing contains a timeline showing the sequence of events involved in specific FOI cases. Taken together, the documents represent an incredible catalogue of failures and blatant breaches of transparency law.

Also, I had to make 2 different requests (and appeal both) to get this far because, the first time I asked, ScotGov was adamant that they didn't hold any relevant material. Imagine my surprise when this happened:

All 3 of the cases in John Swinney's briefing were requests that I submitted. The 2nd of these was to do with Teach First and, it turned out, Prince Charles:

Keith Brown's briefing also contains 3 cases, each of which contains evidence of extensive, unacceptable delays to responses. But there are other issues too...

Next on the list is Shona Robison. Her briefing highlighted a case in which she helped ensure information with withheld despite the FOI Unit saying it should be released:

Then we move onto SPADs. First up is Davie Hutchison, whose role in the following FOI case demands some serious questions given the influence he was clearly able to exert over the final release (which did not "properly comply" with the law).

And this sort of thing doesn't seem to be a one-off either..

Now we move on to Liz Lloyd, Chief of Staff for Nicola Sturgeon, who we can see explicitly blocked the release of information until a suitable 'handling plan' had been agreed.

This is also From Lloyd's briefing. Remember when the government claimed SPADs don't clear FOI requests? Um.....

The next SPAD on the list is Colin McAllister (senior Special Adviser to John Swinney). One of the cases in his briefing was mine and once again concerned Teach First.

Stewart Maxwell's briefing contained info on just 2 cases. 1 was also covered in Brown's briefing and the other was closely connected to him.

The name of the recipient of the final briefing was redacted but I have been able to cross-reference the info with other documents and am therefore confident that it was for an official in the SPAD Private Office (surprise surprise).

Delays, poor record-keeping and unjustified attempts to block the release of information. As per.

A more complete version of this thread is available online. I have also made the briefing documents available for download as well as the notes taken during each individual's interview with the investigators

jmcemedia.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/sen…

And as far as conclusions go, here's the core issue as I see it:

@threadreaderapp unroll please?