Correspondence between SG and Highland Spring CEO: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01581
Date received: 6 July 2017
Date responded: 20 July 2017

Information requested

Under Freedom of Information legislation, I would like to see records of/copies of communication (phone calls/emails/letters etc) between the Scottish Government and Les Montgomery (Highland Spring chief executive) in July 2017.

Response

1. There are no records of the phone calls with Highland Spring. However I can confirm that the Cabinet Secretary's Private Office staff called Mr Montgomery's office to offer him the opportunity to meet with Mr Brown. The phone calls were all of a logistical nature around setting up a meeting.

2. I have included an email sent to Highland Spring following their initial response to the meeting request. There were no further emails.

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 because no records exist of phone calls between Scottish Government and Les Montgomery (Highland Spring chief executive).

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained below.

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information:

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because no records exist of phone calls between Scottish Government and Les Montgomery (Highland Spring chief executive).This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

An exemption applies:

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the 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-17-01581-email correspondence Highland Spring.pdf

File type

1 page PDF

File size

24.8 kB