Publication - FOI/EIR release

Correspondence, briefing papers and meetings with Amazon: FOI release

Published: 22 November 2017
Topic: Business, industry and innovation, Economy, Public sector, +1 more … Work and skills

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

FOI reference: FOI/17/01815
Date received: 10 April 2017
Date responded: 21 September 2017

Information requested

You asked:

Please provide a copy of all (a) correspondence and (b) minutes of meetings and discussions, from during the last 2 years, between the Scottish Government and Amazon.
Please provide a copy of any internal Scottish Government documents (a) that were prepared to support ministers, or (b) by ministers, in relation to (i) the meetings, discussions and exchange of correspondence referred to in question 1.

Response

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data i.e. names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 of 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.

Please note that the documentation contains a reference to an engagement with Mr Paul Wheelhouse. However, this meeting did not take place and so there is no relevant documentation in that regard.

Documents attached:

Title	File Type	Size
Annex A -Email correspondence and briefing pack Amazon meeting, 2 March 2016	PDF	375KB
Annex B - Minutes, action points and email correspondence Amazon meeting, 2 March 2016	PDF	617KB
Annex C - Briefing paper for Amazon meeting, 19 December 2016	PDF	1,187KB
Annex D - Minutes and additional briefing notes Amazon meeting, 19 December 2016	PDF	1,263KB

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