Response

The Scottish Police Authority has considered your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA).

An Authority representative attended the Operation Roll 2 Strategic Partners Gold Group coordinating the policing response to Donald Trump's visit in July 2025. Most of the correspondence held relates to briefings given at this meeting and then shared within the Authority.

Some information has been redacted from emails where this is out of scope of your request or third-party personal information. This exemption is absolute and does not require application of the public interest test. While you may have a legitimate interest in disclosure of this information, it is our view that those interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subjects.

Some information has been redacted from partners summary reports 1, 2 and 4 provided. This is considered exempt as it is information regarding incidents of note over the duration of the visit, some of which are ongoing enquiries and may result in a crime being identified. This exemption requires application of the public interest test. Please note the Authority does not hold the partners summary report 3.

A letter sent from the Authority to the Scottish Government’s Director for Safer Communities is considered exempt as this is information requested by the Scottish Government to inform recovery of the costs incurred from the UK Government. It is recognised that the costs incurred are a matter of public interest, and therefore information on confirmed costs is intended for future publication. These exemptions require application of the public interest test.

Public Interest Test

The public interest factors in favour of disclosure is that:

• This would adhere to the basic principle of being open and transparent in relation to a high profile event.

The public interest factors in favour of maintaining the exemptions are:

• Discussions on cost recovery are ongoing between the Authority, Police Scotland and the Scottish Government, and the UK Government. We would not wish to prejudice these negotiations by disclosing what were estimated costs at the time.

• The information includes estimated costs for policing the visit. While we accept there is interest in this cost, it would not be in the public interest to disclose information before this is refined and confirmed.

• The Scottish Government intends to proactively publish the costs incurred in relation to the recent visit once they are known. The policing costs will be a significant proportion of the total overall cost. Police Scotland has estimated that it will know the actual policing cost in October 2025.

• Disclosing specific incidents of note would prejudice the efficient and effective conduct of policing. This information details actions taken throughout the duration of this type of operation to anticipate and prevent crime, or to establish the identity of people suspected of being responsible for committing a crime.

Therefore, on balance, our conclusion is that maintaining the exemptions outweigh that of disclosure.