Correspondence with Welsh Government regarding EU (Withdrawal) Bill: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02320
Date received: 11 October 2017
Date responded: 1 November 2017

Information requested

Any correspondence, digital or physical, between any Minister, member of staff, or arms-length organisation of the Scottish Government and any Minister, member of staff, or arms-length organisation of the Welsh Government concerning the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill along with any record of or minutes from any meetings between these parties.

Response

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 reason that information is not available is because following extensive checks of our records, no correspondence, digital or physical, has been found between Ministers of the Scottish and Welsh Governments, concerning the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

The costs of locating, retrieving and providing some of the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve any correspondence, digital or physical, or any record of or minutes from any meetings between any member of staff, or arms-length organisation of the Scottish Government and any member of staff, or arms-length organisation of the Welsh Government concerning the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on her website at:Commissioner's Tips

Details of the meetings which have taken place between Ministers of the Scottish Government and Ministers of the Welsh Government, concerning the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, are provided in the table below. Following extensive checks of our records, no minutes from these meetings have been found, nor can relevant officials recall any being taken. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Date	Details of Meeting
27/07/2017	The Lord Advocate and the Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe met with the Counsel General for Wales and the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Finance from the Welsh Government, in Cardiff, to discuss the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
17/08/2017	The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from the Scottish Government and the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs from the Welsh Government met, in Edinburgh, to discuss the UK Government's European Union (Withdrawal) Bill amongst other things.
22/08/2017	The First Ministers of the Scottish and Welsh Governments met in Edinburgh, and agreed the two governments would work together on amendments to the UK Government's European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
11/09/2017	The Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe met with the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Finance from the Welsh Government, in Glasgow, to discuss the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill amongst other things.

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