First Minister visits USA: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/00997
Date received: 21 April 2017
Date responded: 6 July 2017

Information requested

FM in US

A full list of engagements involving the First Minister during her trip to the US, includeing a list of people and organisations present at each meeting, the purpose, a summary of what was discussed and any outcome or agreement made, and full minutes of the FM's meetings with representatives of BlackRock and Morgan Stanley. This should be in full, but to be clear, partially redacted minutes would be preferable to a blanket refusal.

Response

Please find enclosed a table which details most of the information you requested. .

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested are outlined in the attached table of information.

Scottish Enterprise may hold some of the information for their events/meetings and can be contacted by email at enquiries@scotent.co.uk

This is a formal notice under section 17(1)(b) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

In addition, we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemptionunder section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Reasons for not providing infomation

An exemption applies:

An exemptionunder section38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested as follows:

This information relates to personal data relating to a third party and applied in the following cases:

• Names of individuals who attended an event or dinner where the Scottish Government was not responsible for the guest list and does not have permission to publish these lists.

• Names of individuals who attended an event and did not give permission for release.

• Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government officials below the Senior Civil Service.

It would not be the expectation of these individuals that their personal information would be released and may cause them damage or distress to do so.

I am satisfied that the information that has been withheld constitutes the 'personal data' of the individuals concerned, as defined in section 1(1) of the DPA.

In coming to the decision to withhold personal data on the basis that it would be unfair to release it, we have taken into consideration:

• seniority of the individuals' positions;

• any potential damage or distress which may be caused by disclosure of the information;

• expectations of the data subjects with regard to the release of the information.

It would not be within the expectation of these individuals that their personal data would be put into the public domain under FOISA.

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 17 00997 Information table 26 June 2017.pdf

File type

13 page PDF

File size

369.2 kB