Chamber and committees

It is the responsibility of a lead policy official handling a FOI case to ensure that documents for the public record, including emails, are correctly stored electronically. It is Scottish Government policy that no private office, including the Special Advisers’ private office, is responsible for retaining e-mail trails.

In line with best practice management of private office inboxes all items in the deleted items folder are deleted at the end of each outlook session.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15345 on 10 April 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

It is the responsibility of a lead policy official handling a FOI case to ensure that documents for the public record, including emails, are correctly stored electronically. It is Scottish Government policy that no private office, including the Special Advisers’ private office, is responsible for retaining e-mail trails.

The inbox is a tool used by the Special Advisers’ Private Office team to monitor the progress and status of FOI cases being considered by Special Advisers. The dedicated mailbox was created in January 2017 to assist with the management of FOI cases within the Special Advisers’ private office. The use of a dedicated mailbox replaced the previous system of FOI cases being sent to the Special Advisers’ office general administration mailbox and was one of the steps taken to help the Scottish Government meet its FOI performance targets.

The rules were written in January 2017 by the Special Advisers’ Private Secretary drawing on existing custom and practice of managing Private Office mailboxes and circulated to members of the Special Advisers’ private office team to ensure a consistent approach was taken by all members of the private office to the management of cases being considered by Special Advisers. The rules are administrative in nature and were not considered by ministers or special advisers. The creation of the dedicated FOI inbox was discussed with members of the FOI Unit.

The operation of the Special Advisers’ FOI inbox has no impact on a requester’s entitlement to information or on the Scottish Government’s commitment to being an open government. The operation of the inbox complies fully with FOI legislation as well as good mailbox management.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) states that any person who requests information from a Scottish public authority which holds it is entitled to be given that information by the authority, but that this right is subject to certain conditions and exemptions as set out in the act. The Deputy First Minister took the view that it was appropriate, subject to the public interest test, to apply the provisions of the statutory exemption relating to the Royal Household (Section 41(a) of FOISA) to four documents in the draft response. An additional exemption under Section 38 (1) (b) was also initially applied to part of this material.

All documents associated with FOI/17/01247 have subsequently been released. Three of the documents requested (numbers 20, 24 & 25) are available at the Scottish Government’s FOI website by following this link https://beta.gov.scot/publications/foi-17-01247-review/ . The additional document number 26 was released prior to the Government publishing responses on this website and this will be sent to the member.

HIAL owned airports where free parking is provided are Barra, Benbecula, Islay, Tiree and Wick John O’Groats. Free parking is available at Campbeltown Airport which is operated but not owned by HIAL. There are no plans for the introduction of parking charges at these airports.

In order to continue to maintain the existing infrastructure and improve facilities for passengers in the future, HIAL needs to develop a funding model that will provide it with the necessary resources to meet its requirements. The Scottish Government provides significant subsidy to HIAL to support its activities which in 2017-18 totals over £26 million. This needs to be balanced, however, with a fair level of charges to customers (including airlines, passengers, and tenants) for the use of those services. HIAL’s overall approach is designed to ensure that islands and other communities served benefit from sustainable air services now and in the future.

The level of the parking charges at Sumburgh, Stornoway and Kirkwall Airports will be kept under review by HIAL, like all other charges levied by the company, to ensure that HIAL achieves a balanced budget in each financial year.

HIAL assessed a number of factors including the anticipated income from the parking charges based upon anticipated use of the car parks at Sumburgh, Stornoway and Kirkwall Airports; the impact on passengers travelling for medical appointments; whether there was sufficient parking provision for blue badge holders; and the impact of weather and other delays to air services. In addition, the feedback HIAL had received to previous car parking proposals was considered as part of their decision making process.