Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202300387447
Date received: 29 November 2023
Date responded: 3 January 2024
Information Requested
You requested information on Social Security Scotland’s contract with Onclusive – a Social Media listening/media monitoring tool. You asked the below questions, based on a previous FOI release: FOI/202300380993.
Request for information 1: When the contract with Onclusive was established, and the start and finish time period of the contract.
Request for information 2: A copy of the latest correspondence (email, letter or report) between Onclusive and Social Security Scotland.
Request for information 3: The document which states the terms, topics, issues or subjects that Social Security Scotland specifically requested Onclusive to monitor.
Request for information 4: All copies of emails addressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security that concerns Onclusive in 2023.
Request for information 5: All copies of emails addressed to Chief Executive David Wallace that concerns Onclusive in 2023.
Response to your request
Social Security Scotland does not utilise any social media listening tools. It does make use of Onclusive to search for published press coverage about the organisation and its services.
Request for information 1:
Social Security Scotland’s contract with Onclusive was established in December 2018 and is an annual contract which is capable of extension. The current contract is due to end on 31 March 2024.
Requests for information 2,3,4 and 5:
Please see attached documents with the requested information.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. the names and contact details of some individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. The name redacted on Document 2 is that of a Guardian UK journalist who was added to our search terms in 2018 as a key journalist whom we aimed to build a relationship with as Social Security Scotland was established.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing its response to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.