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On 26 April the Scottish Information Commissioner issued a decision notice (048/2022) requiring the disclosure of certain information about legal advice on the topic of a second independence referendum. The information had been withheld by the Scottish Government in response to a Freedom of Information request as it considered that the Government should have been able to receive the advice in confidence under “legal professional privilege”. The Commissioner, in responding to an appeal from the requester, took a different view - that considerations favouring release in this case outweighed those for maintaining legal professional privilege.

The Scottish Government has considered the Commissioner’s decision carefully.

There is a longstanding convention, observed by Scottish, UK and other governments, that government does not disclose legal advice except in exceptional circumstances. This convention, which is reflected in the Scottish Ministerial Code, is intended to ensure that full and frank legal advice can be taken by governments, just as other organisations and individuals can take legal advice in confidence and subject to legal professional privilege.

The convention is also reflected in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, section 36 of which makes such information exempt from release to the extent that the public interest in disclosing the information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption. It is on the applicability of this section of the FOI legislation that the Commissioner has come to a different view from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government considers that the convention on legal advice is important for ensuring good government. It disagrees strongly with the Commissioner’s reasoning in his decision and considers that there are good grounds for a successful appeal to the Court of Session to challenge the Commissioner’s ruling.

However, we have also taken account of the fact that the material covered by this Decision dates from 2020 and relates to proposed government actions that have since been taken forward and on which the legal position can therefore already be assumed. The Government has therefore concluded, on the particular circumstances of this case only, that the time and expense required for an appeal would not be merited, and that it will release and publish the information concerned.

It should be stressed, however, that the Scottish Government’s publication of the material in this case does not set any precedent for its position on releasing any other information that is subject to legal professional privilege, including in response to any other Freedom of Information request. Nor does the Information Commissioner Decision represent a binding legal precedent. The Government will therefore continue to apply the relevant exemptions, in line with the public interest test, as set out in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and to follow the Scottish Ministerial Code in relation to legal advice, including in relation to material related to a referendum. The Government also reserves the right to appeal future Information Commissioner decisions to the Court of Session if it considers that appropriate in the circumstances.

Now that the Public Inquiry is complete Scottish Ministers are considering the terms of the report received on 18 February 2022 and should be in a position to make a decision in due course.

In the period between 2012 and 2021 there have been 72,683 hernia mesh repairs. Rectopexy mesh analysis is not currently produced. Public Health Scotland are in the process of developing the correct codes to use for future analysis.

Local authorities across Scotland have a range of approaches to the provision of technology in schools, including some councils who have undertaken to provide cohorts of their school population with devices using their own budgets.

The latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland. This includes the 72,000 provided as a result of Scottish Government funding. We do not have additional information regarding device rollout in either South Ayrshire or East Ayrshire beyond that included in the answer to S6W-06933.

Independent Licensing Boards in Scotland can grant general extensions of licensed hours if they consider it appropriate to do so in connection with a special event of local or national significance – as was the case during the Queen’s 60 th Jubilee celebrations in 2012. Whilst these are matters for Licensing Boards in their areas, the Scottish Government is supportive of Licensing Boards having these powers. It is worth emphasising the local decision making powers in this area, the Scottish Ministers do not have a power to grant a general extension of licensed hours, unlike the Home Secretary under the England and Wales licensing regime.

In 2022, the National Events Programme, which has now closed for applications, would allow an eligible airshow to apply for EventScotland funding of up to £25,000. EventScotland are supporting the Largs Viking Festival (27 Aug – 4 Sept) and the Making Waves festival in Irvine (22-24 July). Both festivals include an air display as part of their event and are receiving funding via the National Events Programme.

For future years, the Resource Spending Review (RSR) published on 31 May provides a high level direction of travel and sets out Scottish Government priorities. The RSR delivers what certainty the Scottish Government can against the challenging context of the spiralling cost of living, Covid recovery and the Ukraine crisis and within the limits of the fiscal framework. The Scottish Government will work with the events sector and our public bodies on the detail of the spending review and what this means for budgets for individual programmes and projects.

The National Lottery is reserved to the UK Government.

To date there have been no discussions between the Scottish Government and the distributors or funding recipients in Scotland regarding the possibility of Good Causes funding being raised from sale of lottery tickets by a company with reported links to Russia.

The Scottish Government recognises that there are potential risks associated with playing instant win games. Instant win games can have some of the characteristics of commercial gambling products such as increased speed of play and instant gratification which are associated with higher risk of harm. Instant access to these activities through online methods can also create more continuous-play formats which are the most highly associated with harms.

The Scottish Government understands that the Gambling Commission, the body responsible for the regulation of the National Lottery, has recently investigated the National Lottery £10 instant win games. These have now been withdrawn due to the possible link between higher priced games and problem gambling. The new operators of the National Lottery are obligated to ensure that those at risk from gambling harms are protected from them. The Scottish Government would therefore expect the new operators to take the appropriate measures to protect people from harm.

ZWS commissions research and policy reports for a variety of reasons. In some cases ZWS commissions reports which are intentionally aimed at wider public audiences, and in other cases, ZWS commissions reports to inform the development of programmes and interventions, or of Scottish Government policy.

In addition to the reports listed in my answer to S6W-08230, ZWS may have commissioned additional work that was not intended for publication. This includes commercially sensitive work that was undertaken specifically for individual organisations, work solely undertaken in-house by Zero Waste Scotland staff, and data generated to inform input to further published reports or to assist Zero Waste Scotland’s Strategic development.

The National Lottery is reserved to the UK Government and this information is not held by the Scottish Government.