Visit Scotland refuse FOI request regarding airline engagement

[FlyGLA]

Hi all,

I wanted to share my experience with VisitScotland regarding a recent Freedom of Information request (Date 03 January 2025) that raises some serious concerns about transparency and fairness in the aviation sector.

I contacted VisitScotland to request information related to their engagement with airlines and any influence on decisions to shift services between Glasgow Airport and Edinburgh Airport. After initially citing cost limitations, I amended the request three times based on their guidance to bring it within acceptable limits.

Despite making these adjustments, VisitScotland has continued to refuse to release the information. This raises serious questions about why they are unwilling to disclose this data, particularly given the potential conflict of interest involving the Managing Director of Edinburgh Airport, who also holds a leadership position at VisitScotland.

It’s difficult not to conclude that VisitScotland may be influencing airlines to prioritise Edinburgh over Glasgow, which would be a clear manipulation of market dynamics and a breach of their impartiality. Their refusal to release the requested information only strengthens these concerns.

I’ve copied in representatives from Glasgow Airport as well as journalists and politicians representing Glasgow in the hope that they will pursue this further. VisitScotland’s position as a national body means they should be held to the highest standards of transparency and fairness—this type of behaviour cannot go unchallenged. Alison Taylor MP, George Adam MSP, Stuart Patrick, Kam Jandu, Ronald Leitch and Ian Mcconnell Herald and Times.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues with VisitScotland refusing an FOI? I'd appreciate any thoughts or insights!

I have included the communication below:

Dear Mr ****,
Your Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“the Act”) request
Cost limit exceeded
Thank you for your email which was received by VisitScotland on 3rd January 2025 at 22:26
requesting information about:

“Details of any correspondence between Visit Scotland and airlines regarding flight routes and
services, particularly in relation to Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. Specifically, I am interested in
understanding whether Visit Scotland has been encouraging or promoting airlines to establish or
increase flights from Edinburgh over Glasgow.

Please include any emails, letters, or other forms of communication, whether formal or informal,
with airlines or their representatives, from the last five years. If possible, I would appreciate
receiving this information in digital format.”

For clarification, due to this initial request resulting in excessive information which would greatly
exceed the cost limit in terms of section 13 of the Act, the request was refined twice.

Your email of
24th January 2025 refined your search as follows:-
“I would like to request all correspondence since 2020 with the following airlines:
• Air Canada
• Air Transat
• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Emirates
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• WestJet”

This resulted in 4,458 emails and my colleague Sarah Donnachie confirmed that the reviewing and
applying any necessary redactions and collation of documents per email would again far exceed
the excessive cost limit of £600. An estimate of staff time required was 148.6 hours at £15 per
hour = £2,229.

You further refined your search by email on 18th February 2025 to “focus exclusively on
communications with Emirates.”

This refined search has returned more than 600 emails which when collated comprises 2938
VisitScotland, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh EH8 8BG

www.visitscotland.com www.visitscotland.org Tel: 0131 472 2222
pages.

Even at a very conservative estimate of one minute per page this would take over 48
hours, without including the significant time already spent in identifying and collating the
information. Reviewing and applying any necessary redactions and collation of documents per
email would therefore again exceed the excessive cost limit of £600.

Under s13 of the Act, VisitScotland is not obliged to comply with an information request where it
would exceed the cost limit, which is currently set at £600.

We do hold information which you have requested but we have calculated that your request would
exceed the cost limit. We are therefore unable to comply with your request for information. If you
refine your request so that it is more likely to fall under the cost limit, we will consider it again.

Your right to seek a review
If you wish to request a review of your application under either the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, your request
should be submitted to us in writing, or another permanent format (for example e-mail or voice
recording) to:
Ms Vicki Miller
Chief Executive
VisitScotland
Waverley Court
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG
Telephone: 0131 473 3603
E-mail: vicki.miller@visitscotland.com

The request for a review should be received by us within 40 days of the date of this letter. Any
request for a review should also set out, in as much detail as possible, the reasons why you are
not satisfied with our response or the manner in which we have dealt with your application.
If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, then you have the right to appeal to the
Scottish Information Commissioner.

[Clive]

Good job for doing this. You should copy and paste the above to Alistair Dalton at The Scotsman as he might think it worth investigating further. Failing that, Iain McConnell at The Herald, whichever isn’t in Dewar’s pocket.

[bill]

Well done FlyGLA. I hope you eventually get what you're after. Some folks don't call them Visit Edinburgh for nothing!

[G-WATP]

Despite making these adjustments, VisitScotland has continued to refuse to release the information. This raises serious questions about why they are unwilling to disclose this data, particularly given the potential conflict of interest involving the Managing Director of Edinburgh Airport, who also holds a leadership position at VisitScotland.

What 'leadership position at VisitScotland' does Gordon Dewar hold?

[egpffqtv]

Fantastic work FlyGLA.

I wish I had the spare time to do this sort of thing.

Hope you get somewhere with this.

[egpffqtv]

Despite making these adjustments, VisitScotland has continued to refuse to release the information. This raises serious questions about why they are unwilling to disclose this data, particularly given the potential conflict of interest involving the Managing Director of Edinburgh Airport, who also holds a leadership position at VisitScotland.

What 'leadership position at VisitScotland' does Gordon Dewar hold?

According to this, whatever position it was, he resigned in 2018

https://www.visitscotland.org/binaries/ ... h-2019.pdf

[GKirk]

Credit to FlyGLA, we may have had our differences, but it's obvious his passion for GLA. Keep up the good fight.

[Clive]

Credit to FlyGLA, we may have had our differences, but it's obvious his passion for GLA. Keep up the good fight.

Well said, Kirky.

[Iain]

I used to work for a public body and fairly frequently had to answer FOI requests. I dont remember rejecting any, particularly on cost grounds, but then I never received one that involved thousands of pages of information.

I think the best thing us to try to be as specific as possible, otherwise even if you're successful you're going to get screeds of inconsequential emails etc.

The problem is also that they'll switch to "commercial confidentiality" in terms of their dealings with airlines and as mentioned you'll probably find the juicy stuff redacted.

[FlyGLA]

I followed up with VisitEdinburgh, sorry, VisitScotland, and they've once again rejected my FOI request. What are they hiding?

And to think it took them over two weeks to respond with this? Classic public sector inefficiency and incompetence.



Your Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“the Act”) request
Thank-you for your emails of the 12th March 2025 sent to VisitScotland’s Freedom of Information
team and Chief Executive, Vicki Miller.
I am writing to you in relation to your freedom of information request and I am sorry for the delay in
replying to you.
As explained in my response letter to you of 12th March, although refined twice, your request
remains exempt from release due to excessive costs and under the Act, VisitScotland is not
obliged to comply with an information request where it would exceed the cost limit (currently set at
£600).
A large volume of emails is caught by your request, including circulars, transport bookings and
marketing campaigns. The results also include individual and duplicate emails from each email
chain.
To assist you with your request, I hope we can work with you to try and further refine this.
Your most recent refinement was for us to “focus exclusively on communications with Emirates”.
This was over a four-year period and so one suggestion could be that you refine your search to
over a shorter period (for example one year instead of four). Emirates flights from Edinburgh
Airport resumed in November 2024 so you may choose to refine the period over which you would
like information to 2024.
Other suggestions for refinement could be
• against more specific words or phrases (eg “Edinburgh Airport”, “Glasgow Airport”, a
destination or a different airline company).
• against a particular subject or decision
Please note these are suggestions only and it is your decision regarding how you refine your
request. Once we receive a further refinement of your request, we will determine whether the
information can be released or if the excessive costs exemption still applies. We will provide all
reasonable advice and assistance to you regarding your request.
We look forward to hearing from you once you’ve had a chance to consider how you would like to
refine your request.