Organisational structure of the Protocol and Honours team: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


FOI reference: FOI/18/00990
Date received: 26 March 2018
Date responded: 24 April 2018

Information requested

1. What is the organisational structure of the Protocol and Honours team? No names necessary just the positions.

2. Who in the Scottish Government/Parliament is the responsible elected and appointed director/manager/officer? I.e. who does the highest officer I the team report to?

3. Who does the team take instructions from when making changes to the flag protocol?

Response

I will answer your questions in the order they were asked:

1. I attach an organogram outlining the structure of the Protocol and Honours team.

2. The Head of Protocol and Honours reports to James Hynd, Deputy Director, Head of Cabinet, Parliament and Governance division within the Scottish Government.

3. The Protocol and Honours team would seek clearance from the First Minister regarding any changes to the flying of flags to mark specific days or to lower flags after specific events. Operational changes and updating of the guidance is undertaken by officials.

You will see that personal data have been redacted. This is because an exemption under section 38 (1) (b) of FOISA (personal information) applies. Disclosing personal information would contravene data protection principles in schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses

FOI-18-00990 - Annex A - chart.pdf

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference

Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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