The Scottish Government has reportedly blocked a Freedom of Information request for correspondence between the SNP and famous figures.
A newspaper used the legislation to request details of documents between Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond and figures including Rupert Murdoch and businessman and SNP donor Sir Brian Souter.
However, the government is said to have refused to release the documents on the grounds it would be too costly to trawl through their files for them. It is claimed the filing system is not logged according to names of individuals, but on subject matter.
Rebecca Robb, private secretary to Deputy First Minister John Swinney, replied to the Daily Record following the tabloid's request: "I can confirm the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit set at £600.
"This is because as explained in our original response, we do not file our information under the names of individuals; instead information is filed by subject.
"Therefore to find correspondence with particular individuals we would need to trawl through files on almost every subject for which the Scottish Government is responsible."
Author and former Tory MP Louise Mensch wrote on Twitter: "What a surprise: day Holyrood tries to block release of @AlexSalmond fawning celeb letters."
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