24-25/37

I refer to your request for information dated 10 September 2024 (FOI 24-25/37) in which you asked for information related to the “unacceptable actions Policy” and “complaints handling arrangements” which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA).

With regards to your request, we have conducted a search for “drafts of new policies, emails between staff discussing the need to review these policies, discussion on Teams” regarding the Unacceptable Actions Policy and the Complaints Handling Procedure. The relevant records include the following:

• Various email exchanges between colleagues regarding the development of both procedures;
• Draft flow diagrams of a revised process;
• Suggested user content explaining the procedures;
• Development plans regarding the implementation

We have withheld the above records as they are exempt under section 30(b)(i)(ii) and section 30(c) of FOISA.

Where the records have been withheld under section 30(b)(i) and (ii) this has been done as disclosure of them is likely to inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice as well as the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation.

There is clear public interest in the transparent operation of public authorities, and this is why we make our Unacceptable Actions Policy and Service Complaints Procedure publicly available and ask for Feedback from all users of our services. However, there is also a significant public interest in GTC Scotland being able to consider its various procedures in private to improve them without the concern that such deliberations and exploration of options will be made public during the process.

GTC Scotland needs to be able to have free and frank exchanges and reflect consideration of matters in a private space so that these matters can be articulated, developed, discussed and tested. Disclosure of these records would be likely to substantially inhibit the exchange of views and provision of advice if employees knew they could be disclosed under FOISA. We consider the public interest in withholding this information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

We also consider that releasing the records would otherwise prejudice substantially, or be likely to prejudice substantially, the effective conduct of public affairs under section 30(c) of FOISA.

As stated, while there is a clear public interest in the transparent operation of public authorities it is necessary for their proper functioning that draft procedures be considered internally without public scrutiny. We need to develop a draft version of documents in a private space so that we can properly develop, discuss and revise these documents and their evolving procedures.

If these records were to be placed in the public domain by disclosing it to you under FOISA, we consider that there would be a reluctance to make substantive contributions and the sharing of ideas on prevailing topics creating more restrained and less helpful contributions over time. This would have a significantly adverse impact upon our GTC Scotland employees involved in this type of work who need to be able to amend draft documents, discuss matters and carry out their roles in relation to the development and improvement of our service complaints procedure. We consider the public interest in withholding this information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Additionally, the records contain personal data of third parties as data that identifies them and relates to them, which we consider would be unfair to disclose to you and put into the public domain. It would be beyond a reasonable expectation and would not be reasonable or possible for us to notify them or seek their consent to disclosure. I have therefore applied the exemption in section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, to withhold this information from disclosure to you, as it would contravene the first data protection principle in Article 5(1)(a) of the UK GDPR.

You may contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk if you are dissatisfied with this response, to request GTC Scotland conduct a review of it. You should describe the original request and explain your grounds of review. 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 make an appeal to the Commissioner.

I refer to the request that you submitted on 8 October 2024 for a review of our response also dated 8 October 2024 to your information request dated 10 September 2024, which we handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

You have expressed dissatisfaction with our response to your information request. To enable your review request to be considered afresh and by someone who has not responded to your original request, I have been appointed to undertake the internal review on behalf of GTC Scotland.

Your original request

In your original request you asked for the following:

It is now more than two years since the commitment to review the unacceptable actions policy and complaint handling arrangements was first made to made to me by your Chief Executive. Please could you send me any information that you have that demonstrates that this commitment has been acted upon. For example, this might be drafts of new policies, emails between staff discussing the need to review these policies, discussion on Teams of what the reviewed policies might look like.

Your request for a review

In your request for a review you have stated:

What I was looking for was information that would demonstrate that the commitment of the Chief Executive had been acted upon. Please could you therefore send the information you have identified, but redact anything for which disclosure would actually be likely to prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs, is likely to inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice or the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation, or which is personal information– avoiding redaction where the public interest test would override the exemption.

Thank you for the helpful clarification of the information you would find helpful in your review request. I note that in his original response a colleague withheld the records that their search had identified in their entirety on the basis of the exemptions that they applied (corresponding to your clarification above).

Having reviewed his response and the records that were identified, I am of the view that it was correct that my colleague withheld much of the documentation in its entirety due to the ongoing nature of this work, however I believe that there is information that we can provide to demonstrate that a review of our complaints handling arrangements is underway. Accordingly, I attach relevant extracts from the email correspondence referred to in the original response. I have also included an email exchange that took place after you made your initial request due to its relevance to your request.

Elements of the attached documentation have been withheld in line with exemptions under FOISA, as follows:

Section 30(b)(ii) – free and frank provision of views for the purpose of deliberation

Where information has been withheld under section 30(b) (ii) (redacted in blue) this has been done as disclosure of them is likely to inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation.

There is clear public interest in the transparent operation of public authorities to ensure accountability in the work that we do. However, we consider it to be essential to enable GTC Scotland to have a private space to note and share views for the purpose of later discussion and deliberation as part of our internal decision - making process.

s38(1)(b) – personal data

The records contain personal data of third parties (redacted in black),i.e. data that identifies them and relates to them, which we consider would be unfair to disclose to you and put into the public domain, as it would be beyond their reasonable expectations and would not be reasonable or possible for us to notify them or seek their consent to disclosure.

I maintain that my colleague was correct to withhold the drafts on the basis that no proposals have as yet been through the proper governance channels for consideration and sign-off and therefore we do not consider that the public interest test would be met by releasing any information beyond confirmation that the work is ongoing.

I hope that this additional information has been of assistance. If you are dissatisfied with this response to your review request, you have a right of appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner within 6 months of this review response. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal describes the process, including the application form. Further information, including relevant contact details is available on the website www.itspublicknowledge.info/appeal.

If you are dissatisfied with the decision of the Commissioner, following an appeal to the Commissioner, you have a right of appeal to the Court of Session on a point of law.