National Conversation

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2002 please provide me with
the number of times First Minister Alex Salmond has attended a
"National Conversation" event since it began.

If details of each of those events is available somewhere it would
be helpful if a link could be provided. If possible please make
available a list of speakers at such events Alex Salmond has
attended and (if available) if those speakers are for or against
Independence.

Finally, please provide me a complete list of MSPs or MPs that have
been invited to speak at National Conversation events since they
were first launched.

After looking at several events it appears to be just a soapbox for
Mr Salmond to spread his separatist agenda at the expense of the
tax payer.

Yours faithfully,

John Simpson

Dear Sir or Madam,

On the 19th of March i sent a Freedom of Information request to
this address. I received no acknowledgement email so i would just
like to check my request was received and find out if it is being
dealt with?

The request sent was...

"Under the Freedom of Information Act 2002 please provide me with
the number of times First Minister Alex Salmond has attended a
"National Conversation" event since it began.

If details of each of those events is available somewhere it would
be helpful if a link could be provided. If possible please make
available a list of speakers at such events Alex Salmond has
attended and (if available) if those speakers are for or against
Independence.

Finally, please provide me a complete list of MSPs or MPs that have
been invited to speak at National Conversation events since they
were first launched.

After looking at several events it appears to be just a soapbox for
Mr Salmond to spread his separatist agenda at the expense of the
tax payer."

Please can you let me know if my request will be replied to.

Yours sincerely,

John Simpson

Dear Jaime Neal,

On the 25 of March i received an email from you saying you would
respond to my freedom of information request within 20 working
days. It is now the 1st or May, so if possible i would like an
update on when my request will be completed.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

John Simpson

Dear Jaime Neal,

On the 18th of May you replied to my Freedom of Information request
saying you had completed the search for information and were
waiting for clearance to release it.

It has now been over a week, i was wondering if the information was
available yet?

Yours sincerely,

John Simpson

Dear Jaime Neal,

Thank you very much for your response to my request, the table
detailing when the First Minister attended events is most helpful.

You said "The Scottish Government does not hold a record of
speakers who attended events organised by others." but most of the
events in the table provided do not say they were organised by
external organisations.

Is there no information available on all MSPs/MPs invited to speak
or that attended such national conversation events as well? I
understand if theres no detail available about all events, but
anything available would be very helpful. If such information isn't
held centrally perhaps you could provide me with email addresses to
contact the organisers of the different events directly to ask for
such info.

Considering tax payers money has been used to fund these events, i
think knowing which MSPs/MPs were invited helps show if these
events have been balanced or simply pushing certain peoples
political agenda.

Yours sincerely,

John Simpson

Dear Sir or Madam,

I sent in a freedom of information request several months ago which
has been responded to in part, although i seek further information.

The information i am looking for is a list of all MSPs/MPs invited
to attend or speak at National Conversation events. I understand
from the previous response not all are organised by the Scottish
executive directly, but some are.

There for please release a list of each MP/MSP invited to every
National Conversation event details are available for. This
"National conversation" is at the tax payers expense, so such
information should be available. If you are unable to provide a
single list of MPs/MSPs then please provide a full list of every
invited speaker to such events or give me the Email addresses for
event organisers so i can contact them directly.

If this can not be dealt with under my previous FOI request i will
submit a new one if its helpful. Thanks

Yours faithfully,

John Simpson

Dear Jaime Neal,

Thank you for the list of those invited to attend events since the
change in process. With the exception of Joe Fitzpatrick who spoke
at one event, is no more information available on the MPs/MSPs who
have attended and spoke?

One final thing if possible, could you please provide me with a
copy of one of the original ministerial notifications to MPs/MSPs
used from 2007 till May 2009?

Thank you for your help,

Yours faithfully,

John Simpson

Dear Jaime Neal,

Thank you for the information and help provided on this. I will
consider submitting a new request to the Scottish Government for a
copy of the ministerial notifications.

Yours faithfully,

John Simpson