Information Access Team
Shared Services Directorate
2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail: [email address] Website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Our reference: 13853
Date: 12 May 2010
Dear Mr Wyllie
I am writing in response to you email of 24 January 2010 about your request
for information with regard to how the Home Office works with the Scottish
Executive.Your request has been handled as a request for information under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please accept my apologies for the
length of time it has taken to provide you with a substantive response to your
request. As confirmed in previous correspondence this has been due to the
extensive consultations undertaken in order to assess the public interest
considerations affecting the decision to disclose the information requested.
I can confirm that the Home Office holds the information you requested.
Annex A to this letter contains the guidance you requested in part i) of your
FoI request. For your reference we have electronically redacted (deleted) the
names and telephone numbers of junior officials from this material as this
information is not seen to fall within the scope of your request.
Annex B to this letter contains information seen to fall within the scope of part
i ) of your FoI request. We have however, after careful consideration, decided
that some of the information asked for in part ii) of your request is exempt
from disclosure under sections 23(1) and 24(1) of the Freedom of Information
Act respectively. These provide that information can be withheld where
information is supplied by, or relates to, bodies dealing with security matters
and national security. Section 23 is an absolute exemption and, as such, no
further consideration is required. Section 24(1) is a qualified exemption and I
have considered whether the balance of the public interest favours releasing
or withholding this material is set out in Annex C to this letter.
Unfortunately we are unable to provide the information you asked for in part
i i) of your FoI request. Under section 12 of the Act, the Home Office is not
obliged to comply with an information request where to do so would exceed
the cost limit.
Though we hold the information which you have requested it is estimated that
the cost of meeting part ii ) of your request would exceed the cost limit of £600
specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. We are therefore unable to comply with it.
The time already spent on answering parts i) and ii) of your request in
conjunction with the estimated time it would take to answer part ii ) of your
request would require more than the 24 hours of work allowed for when
determining whether the cost limit under the Act would be breached.
This is because the information relevant to part ii ) of your request wil be held
by individual units of the Home Office and its executive agencies; the Criminal
Records Bureau, Identity and Passport Service and UK Border Agency. In
order to answer point ii ) of your request without oversight or omission would
therefore involve approaching several hundred areas within the Home Office
and agencies asking them to undertake a detailed search for information
The £600 limit is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour,
which equates to 24 hours of work per request. The cost of locating, retrieving
and extracting information and preparing the response can be included in the
costs for these purposes. The costs do not include considering whether any
information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting,
or items such as photocopying or postage.
Even if part ii ) of your request for information had been made independently
of parts i) and ii ), the time needed to consider it as mentioned above is likely
to exceed the cost limit. If you refine that part of your request, so that it is
more likely to fall under the cost limit, we wil consider it again. You may wish
to consider asking for information held by a particular unit. Details of these
can be found by using the following link to the Home Office website:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/organisation/directorate-
search/index.html
Please note that if you simply break your request down into a series of similar
smaller requests, we might stil decline to answer it if the total cost exceeds
£600.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent
internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint
within two months to the address below, quoting reference 13853. If you ask
for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are
dissatisfied with the response.
Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
e-mail: [email address]
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information
request wil be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you
with this response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you
would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as
established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
Robert Clifford
Annex A
Human Rights and Devolution Team
(Devolution separate page)
Devolution
Who are the Human Rights and Devolution Team?
Home Office
3rd Floor, Seacole
2MS
London SW1P 4DF
The Human Rights and Devolution Team, which is part of the Better
Regulation Unit, is responsible for managing the relationship with devolved
administrations (DAs) – the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly
Government, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
How we can help
We can provide you with advice on how to work with the DAs and how to
address Ministers in their respective administrations. Below are the links to
the respective DAs home webpage:
Scottish Government website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home
Welsh Assembly Government website http://wales.gov.uk/?lang=en
Northern Ireland Assembly website http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/
Each DA has been given powers to make laws according to their respective
devolution Acts – The Scotland Act 1998, Government of Wales Act 1998 and
2006, Northern Ireland Act 1998.
We can also help you to liaise with DAs and the Territorial Offices (TOs) and
explain the differences between them. Below are the TO home web pages
which provide contacts and the names of the respective ministers:
The Scotland Office http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/ ;
Wales Office http://www.walesoffice.gov.uk/ ; and
Northern Ireland Office http://www.nio.gov.uk/
In addition, the Cabinet Office needs to be informed about issues that are
potentially higher profile or involve multiple devolved administrations; it is also
the home of the Devolution Secretariat.
The Devolution Team liaises with the DAs to establish a joined up working
relationship for the benefit of the whole United Kingdom on Human Rights and
Devolution issues.
At Board level we have a Devolution Champion who is our Commercial and
Finance Director* who meets regularly with colleagues from the DAs in order
to promote better communication and act as a central point for problem
resolution. The Human Rights and Devolution Team provides support and
also have more regular meetings with DA counterparts.
(*
this is a typographical error and should instead read: At Board level we have
a Devolution Champion who is the Director-General of the Financial and
Commercial Group)
Because many of the policies of the Home Office are reserved matters (that is
responsibility is retained by UK Government), policies that affect the DAs’
territories (or have possible impact on their devolved responsibilities), we help
coordinate consultation and dialogue with them. This includes domestic and
international UK responsibilities. For example, the UK Government
represents all the national governments of the UK in the EU and discusses
matters with the national governments to ensure Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland’s interests are taken into consideration in UK/EU policy.
This approach has the benefit of keeping the UK and the devolved
governments up to date on each other’s policies on reserved and devolved
matters.
The principles of Devolution
In July 2008 Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Head of the Civil Service, provided all
Departments with the Cabinet Office’s Guidance for UK Government
Departments:
Working with the Devolved Administrations.
In his letter to the Departments, he summarised what the Guidance wants to
achieve and how to achieve it. Sir Gus stresses the Guidance has several key
issues:
• The importance of contact with the devolved administrations on
matters of proper common interest. (It is essential to good
government that this continues, even when there are
differences in approach between administrations at political
level);
• Contact is frequently essential to avoid misunderstandings
arising. (Often we can learn from approaches taken by devolved
administrations, and vice versa);
• Where responsibilities are devolved, we ought to consider
taking ideas forward in partnership with the devolved
administrations from an early stage, if that is practically and
politically possible. (Working in isolation from the
administrations, sometimes with hurried last-minute consultation
with them, is unlikely to produce effective results and may often
cause il -feeling).
At the same time we must bear in mind that there are sensitivities around the
sorts of information we can exchange with the devolved administrations. The
guidance brings this out – the devolved administrations and the UK
Government are separate political entities and that must be respected.
Furthermore, we must be more effectively joined up among ourselves in our
approach to devolution. In particular that means the territorial departments
within the UK government need to be involved where ever possible.
Cabinet Office have published guidance on working with the DAs on their
website - www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/devolution
Other useful guidance on working with the DAs – ‘A short guide for officials on
devolution’ - can be found on the Ministry of Justice website:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/devolution_guide_officials.pdf
(Human Rights separate page)
Human Rights and Devolution Team
Human Rights
Who are the Human Rights and Devolution Team?
Home Office
3rd Floor, Seacole
2MS
London SW1P 4DF
The purpose of the Devolution and Human Rights Team
The Human Rights coordinators are responsible for coordinating activity
across the Home Office to ensure that we comply with human rights
requirements. We can also offer advice and guidance on matters relating to
both human and ‘fundamental’ rights.
Justifiable human rights are essentially those signed up to by the UK in the
1950 European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR); these are enshrined in
UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998. Section 3(1) of the Act states:
“so far as is possible to do so, primary legislation and subordinate legislation
must be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with the
Convention (ECHR) rights.”
If you have a human rights enquiry, you can contact one of the human rights
coordinators
What else do we do?
The Human Rights Coordinators assist the Ministry of Justice, Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and OGD’s in helping coordinate the UK Government’s
response to UN/EU International Conventions/Treaties the UK is signed up to.
This requires detailed briefing from policy leads on policy areas that fall within
the respective UN/EU International Conventions. We also help facilitate visits
and official inquiries from International Organisations and bodies as well as
NGO’s and other interested parties.
What is Human Rights? Where can I get guidance?
The Ministry of Justice is responsible for human rights as part of their
constitutional remit. The MoJ have produced a very useful guidance – Making
Sense of Human Rights. This can be found on the MoJ’s website:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/hr-handbook-introduction.pdf
The MoJ website is also useful for current information and news relating to
human rights.
Annex B
HOME OFFICE RETURN
DEPARTMENTS AND DEVOLUTION CAPABILITY: OUTLINE OF
ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK
1. Context: department’s interaction with devolution issues
Main Home Office business is reserved but we are reliant on good working
relationships with the Devolved Administrations (DAs) for effective delivery of
our policies. We set out below some specific areas to demonstrate how this
operates.
UKBA SCOTLAND
Immigration and asylum are reserved matters in all the devolved
administrations. Our immigration policy does interact with many devolved
issues e.g. health, education, housing and justice. Obviously in each of these
issues the devolution settlements can differ. There can be political differences
between HMG and the DAs over UKBA policy e.g. detention of children, the
Points Based System, asylum support and citizenship consultation. It should
be noted, the differences in position are not uniform across the DAs.
UKBA [Scotland and Northern Ireland (SN/I) region] has regular formal and
informal meetings with the DAs in Scotland / NI. In addition, the Deputy
Director in the region has a UKBA-wide role for devolution issues.
Implementation of immigration policy relies to a great extent on working with
the DAs due to the multiple interfaces with devolved policies. Engagement
from the S/NI region - and the Wales and South West region also - is
extensive with the DAs. We are looking to increase engagement with central
UKBA colleagues who may be leading on new initiatives.
Examples include their involvement at the regular stakeholder meetings led by
the region e.g. Scottish Asylum Stakeholder Forum; Enforcing the Rules and
Managed Migration forums and their involvement, along with Glasgow City
Council and other stakeholders, on the current Families Return Project in
Glasgow which seeks to encourage refused asylum seeking families to return
voluntarily to their home country and to provide them with targeted help to do
so.
INDEPENDENT CHIEF INSPECTOR UKBA
The inspection remit of the independent Chief Inspector of the UK Borders
Agency* covers the whole of the UK where the UK Border Agency operates.
(Sections 48-56 of the UK Borders Act 2007 (as amended) and section 28 of
the Borders Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 set out the legislative
framework for the inspection by the Chief Inspector of the work of the UK
Border Agency).
(*This is a typographical error and instead should read: UK Border Agency)
OSCT
Counter-terrorism is a reserved matter and the Home Office has UK
responsibility over the legislation. However, we liaise regularly with Northern
Ireland and Scotland over counter-terrorism issues to ensure legislation,
policies and procedures do not cause undue difficulties and can be replicated
for both DAs.
Relationships are generally very good at working level.
Relationships certainly work better the more we engage with the DAs. We are
currently looking at ways we can align/share information about performance
management. This is not easy as the DAs constitutionally do not report to
Westminster.
Home Office Legal Advisor’s Branch (HOLAB)
HOLAB provide legal advice in respect of all areas of HO business. We liaise
and co-operate with officials and lawyers in the DAs where appropriate. Good
co-operation is often necessary in drafting and implementing law and co-
ordinating policy.
NPIA
Child Rescue Alert
The NPIA Missing Persons Bureau is positively engaged with Wales,
Scotland, Northern and Southern Ireland to produce an alert system that
works across the British Isles. Scotland has their own system which will be
launched to coincide with the England and Wales launch next year.
Specialist Operational Services
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all make use of the Specialist
Operational Services the NPIA offer. Differences in the law have to be
accounted for but the services are not material y different as a result. Whilst
codes of practice do not always apply outside of England we encourage their
adoption as best practice as far as possible. Scotland also contributes funding
for two Crime Investigation Support Officers based in their region.
Al seven Scottish police forces have agreed to a programme supported by
the NPIA, and already adopted in England and Wales, to obtain firearms
licenses. Strathclyde are fully licensed and the remaining forces are currently
provisionally licensed.
International Policing Assistance Board (IPAB)
The IPAB is an ACPO-led high level multi-agency advisory body established
to better coordinate delivery of HMG cross departmental police service
initiatives and professional interests overseas. The aim is to develop a
strategic overview of UK aims in international police assistance. The NPIA,
Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Office, together with other HMG
departments such as the Home Office, FCO, DfID and Cabinet Office are all
members of this Board. The Board provides a platform for the NPIA to liaise
with the Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Office and has already been
important in the handling and management of media/FOI/PQ related issues
relating to UK international policing assistance.
Police Learning & Development
There is increasing focus on providing the same police training services for
the devolved administrations, particularly with respect to:
• Counter Terrorism Training
• Serious and Organised Crime and Surveil ance
• High Tech Crime
• Intelligence
• Interoperability
• Training on the use of ICT systems e.g. Airwave, Schengen,
PNC/PND, Visor.
This year NPIA have been funded to deliver the following programmes across
all 8 Scottish police forces and PSNI:
• Airwave TAC Adviser Training
• Intelligence and Community Engagement workshops (ICE)
Police Learning & Development – e-learning A key issue for us is access to the NCALT Managed Learning Environment
(MLE). PSNI are Associate Partners in the MLE. We are adapting some
packages for legislative differences in Northern Ireland. PSNI are big users of
the MLE.
Scottish forces have not yet agreed to become Associate Partners, but we are
being encouraged actively by ACPO leads to make the following e-learning
training packages available to them:
• Counter Terrorism Operating Procedures
• Police National Database
• Management of Police Information
• Mental Health training
We are unwil ing to provide the e-learning on other platforms for Scotland
because it often fails if not properly supported and there are performance and
reputational risks.
Identity and Passport Service (IPS). IPS’ responsibilities for issuing identity cards and passports are UK wide.
IPS has regional offices in Glasgow, Newport and Belfast and a network of
local interview offices across the UK.
The IPS CEO is also Registrar General for England & Wales and, in that
context, has regular trilaterals with the R-Gs for Scotland & Northern Ireland.
IPS has established procedures for joint working cover, for example the
provision of data to authenticate passport applicants from Scotland and
Northern Ireland registers.
Ministers from all 3 DAs are members of the Identity Working Group chaired
by the Home Secretary/Meg Hil ier.
The Scottish Government is opposed to the introduction of identity cards.
We have worked to establish good lines of communication with officials in
devolved administrations to try to ensure ‘no surprises’ in implementing NIS
policy or engaging with stakeholders. This includes occasional letters from
Meg Hil ier to alert the appropriate minister, for example to the closure of
some local offices, and briefings for officials in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
Specific discussions have included the role of Disclosure Scotland in
providing services to the English airports trialling identity cards.
Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
In the operation of the CRB Disclosure Service which is operated under Part
V of the Police Act 1997, organisations wishing to use the service must have
the ability to ask an ‘exempted question’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders
Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1997. The Order extends to England and Wales
only with separate Orders for Scotland and Northern Ireland being made
through the respective Parliaments.
There are separate Disclosure Services for Scotland (Disclosure Scotland)
and Northern Ireland (Access Northern Ireland).
From July 2010, as well as owning the Vetting and Barring Scheme
Monitoring System for England and Wales, the CRB wil also be responsible
for maintaining the records of those Northern Ireland citizens being monitored
by the Vetting and Barring Scheme.
The CRB works closely with its colleagues in Scotland and Northern Ireland in
the operation of the Disclosures services, sharing best practice and joint
working in service enhancements and new initiatives. The CRB also involve
colleagues in the Welsh Assembly in any legislative developments or key
policy issues.
Concordats.
The Home Office has concordats with all three of the DAs. With Scotland we
are awaiting the enactment of the changes announced in the Calman
Commission White Paper on Scottish devolution.
2. Capabilities: knowledge about devolution within department
UKBA SCOTLAND
We do not formally record examples of secondments to the DAs although
some staff have experience of working in the DAs and also the Territorial
Offices (TOs). There are informal shadowing arrangements e.g. a number of
staff who are shadowing the Scottish Government and Parliament early next
year. In addition to LAB’s normal work with the DAs, UKBA also works with
OSAG [Scotland] and the Crown Solicitor’s Office [NI] on individual matters
plus general policy and legislation.
HOLAB
Al lawyers are expected to advise on devolution issues in their own area of
responsibility.
IPS
We are building the capability of our three Regional Directors, who already
have significant local knowledge, in the law and governance of devolution and
developing their relationships with the assemblies and stakeholders. The
directors and Identity Rights Unit staff who lead and co-ordinate on devolution
issues have all received tailored training (from the centre of the Home Office).
We draw on IPS local staff to provide, for example, interviews in Welsh.
Guidance and Training Bil Teams receive targeted training on a range of issues which includes
Devolution from our Devolution Co-ordinator. Policy induction training
available to new staff at all levels includes reference to Devolution and the
relevant contacts.
The central Devolution team are widely known across the department and
provide advice and act as a key liaison point with the DAs and TOs. They,
together with the Devolution Champion, maintain regular contact (and visits)
to the DAs.
3. Capabilities: behaviours within department
UKBA SCOTLAND
Working closely with Scottish colleagues is essential. In reality this is either
led or facilitated by the regional office. There is an understanding that on
occasion we are limited in what we can say.
The more we engage the better our understandings wil be especially when it
comes to more sensitive policies. UKBA have taken into account the DA’s
position in policy development e.g. there exists a ‘Lead Professional’ to advise
on family legacy cases; we ask the Migration Advisory Committee to produce
a separate occupational shortage list for Scotland for Tier 2 of the Points
Based System; the Scottish Government [and other partners] were involved
from the beginning in the Families Return Project currently being piloted in
Glasgow.
We need to get smarter at internal UKBA / Home Office communication so
that when policies are being developed those operationally or in the regions
are aware, can advise and facilitate early discussion with the DAs.
There is regular contact both formal and informal. The Regional Director
meets as a minimum [and in reality it is more frequently] twice yearly with the
DAs and TOs. This is in his role as stakeholder account manager for the DAs
and TOs. The ADs and DDs meet more frequently. In addition, Lin Homer met
with the NI counterparts recently and Phil Woolas hosted a meeting which
involved the SG. We also have an open door for DA / TO staff to visit our
offices and meet with staff.
We provide training to SG officials as part of their Continuing Personal
Development about HMG / DA relations. It is up to the DAs how much they
share with HMG. We need to have a two way flow of information. It cannot
just be HMG providing information [with varying degrees of involvement] to
the DAs. Their policies may impact on HMG also.
OSCT
During the consultation period of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 senior
officials from the OSCT Legislation Bil team visited counterparts in DAs. The
CT legislation team has regular contact with DAs on all CT issues. Lord
Carlisle also regularly liaises with DAs regarding the operation of terrorism
legislation.
Working relationships on an individual basis is already good so there is no
practical need for a strategy.
We have a regular group that meets across al of the DAs to update on
information/developments and share best practice. There is also good regular
informal contact.
HOLAB
Home Office lawyers are keen to be involved in policy development at an
early stage and discussions regarding devolution issues are, sadly, often left
too late in the process.
IPS
There have been a number of SCS level meetings over the past year and IPS
has good informal communication links but we are not systematic (yet) at
keeping up to date on what is happening on identity in the three devolved
administrations.
Officials from the devolved administrations receive papers for the cross-
government
Safeguarding Identity Group and may attend if they wish; we aim
to draw on their relevant knowledge and experience.
CRB
Officials at all levels meet frequently with counterparts in Scotland
4. Capabilities: systems within department
The Home Office has a board level departmental champion, Helen Kilpatrick,
who is supported in this function by the Devolution Team.
UKBA SCOTLAND
The Regional Director has a specific role in working with the Devolved
Administrations which is reflected in his job objectives. In terms of publicising,
there is a programme of raising awareness work e.g. attending senior
meetings / lunchtime seminars and involvement in UKBA’s stakeholder
training to promote the inclusion of the DAs [and stakeholder groups in
Scotland / Wales / NI] as a key UKBA stakeholder.
NPIA
Tom McArthur (NPIA Director of Operations) recently met with Tom McMahon
of the Scottish Executive and has fairly regular meetings with the Scottish
Government and forces.
Representatives of the NPIA and the Home Office visited the Community
Safety team of the Scottish Government in November to exchange ideas and
good practice, and make lasting contacts across the border. They also
undertook visits to Community Safety teams in Ayr and Glasgow.
IPS
The IPS Board has a devolution strategy and receives quarterly updates for
discussion. Work is led and co-ordinated by the Identity Rights Unit, part of
the IPS Strategy Directorate, and is usually well sighted on relevant issues.
5. Conclusions
From the responses above, it is clear that there are already a number of
effective arrangements in place. However, there is always scope to do more
where this would benefit delivery of Home Office business and there is
capacity for staff to fulfil any additional work. Having departmental champions
has proven to be a benefit as well as devolution coordination advisors.
UKBA SCOTLAND
Much of our practice e.g. stakeholder account manager / involving the DAs in
stakeholder meetings / informal and ad hoc contact is worth sharing.
Relationships are enhanced with regular meetings, involving DAs early on in
policy making, specific training in departments, nominated devolution leads
and better internal communication to operational / devolution / regional leads.
OSCT
Working with the DAs and awareness of DA issues should become more
embedded. There is an impression that it is one person’s responsibility and
colleagues only go to that person when there is an issue or a problem.
Clearly, not everyone can be an expert, but it would help if people thought
about DA work more regularly, especially when forming new policy or
planning legislation.
CONTEST DA Cross Cutting Group meets quarterly to update and inform
attendees about work ongoing with CONTEST. A recent survey with DAs
about usefulness of meeting and responses were overwhelmingly positive.
We find is a useful format to share best practice as well.
IPS
There is regular dialogue between Ministers and Westminster MPs for the
DAs. One area where communication could be improved is the lack of a clear
and easy channel to get basic UK government policy information to elected
representatives in DAs – for example into the assembly libraries.
Annex C
Information requested
The existence and results of any assessments undertaken since 1 January
2008 about the way in which the Home Office cooperates with the Scottish
Administration
Response
Some of the information requested is exempt from disclosure under sections
23(1) and 24(1) of the FoI Act respectively. Section 23(1) provides that
information held is exempt information if it was directly or indirectly supplied
by bodies dealing with security matters. Section 24(1) provides that
information can be withheld for the purpose of safeguarding national security.
Public interest test
Some of the exemptions in the FoI Act, referred to as ‘qualified exemptions’,
are subject to a public interest test (PIT). This test is used to balance the
public interest in disclosure against the public interest in favour of withholding
the information, or the considerations for and against the requirement to say
whether the information requested is held or not. We must carry out a PIT
where we are considering using any of the qualified exemptions in response
to a request for information.
The ‘public interest’ is not the same as what interests the public. In carrying
out a PIT we consider the greater good or benefit to the community as a
whole if the information is released or not. The ‘right to know’ must be
balanced against the need to enable effective government and to serve the
best interests of the public.
The FoI Act is ‘applicant blind’. This means that we cannot, and do not, ask
about the motives of anyone who asks for information. In providing a
response to one person, we are expressing a willingness to provide the same
response to anyone, including those who might represent a threat to the UK.
Section 23(1) about information supplied by or relating to bodies dealing with
security matters is an absolute exemption and is not subject to any public
interest test.
Section 24(1) about national security is a qualified exemption and subject to a
public interest test. My considerations are below:
Section 24(1) – considerations in favour of disclosing the information
There is a general public interest in disclosure and the fact that openness in
government increases public trust in, and engagement with, the government.
In relation to this information, the disclosure of it could enhance the openness
of government and help the public understand the efforts targeted at national
security between the Home Office and the Scottish Executive.
Section 24(1) – considerations in favour withholding the information
However, the information relevant to your request concerns information about
how the Home Office and Scottish Executive cooperate in areas of national
security. Releasing this information could prove advantageous to those
seeking to undermine national security. We consider that release of this
information would provide individuals and/or groups insight into national
security issues that would assist any planned attack.
We have determined that safeguarding national security interests is of
paramount importance and that in all circumstances of the case it is our
opinion that the public interest clearly favours the non-disclosure of
information covered by section 24(1).
