Correspondence with Ineos: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00317
Date received: 26 January 2018
Date responded: 22 February 2018

Information requested

1. Copies of correspondence - including letters; emails; notes from phone calls - between the following Scottish Government directorates:

• Energy & Climate Change

• Environment & Forestry

And Ineos; Ineos Shale and/or any lawyers/consultants representing the interests of Ineos and/or Ineos Shale between September 1 and October 31 and December 1 to present (26 January 2018).

2. Details of any meetings - including any notes; minutes or transcripts - between the following Scottish Government directorates:

• Energy & Climate Change

• Environment & Forestry Scottish Government

And Ineos; Ineos Shale and/or any lawyers/consultants representing the interests of Ineos and/or Ineos Shale between September 1 and October 31 and December 1 to present (26 January 2018).

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Some of the information you have requested was published in response to a previous freedom of information request. This information can be found at the following link: /publications/foi-17-02605/

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in Annex B.

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 exceptions under regulations 10(5)(e) (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest) and 11.2 (personal data relating to a third party) of the EIRs apply to that information.

Reasons for not providing information

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. Regulation 10(5)(e) provides for confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, provided for by law to protect legitimate economic interest.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test.' Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some interest in release. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which operate in Scotland.

An exception under regulation 11 (2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third aprty and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998. This exception 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 exception.

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-18-00317 - released information.pdf

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