Expenses claimed by Scottish Ministers against the Trump Organisation: FOI release

Information requested

1. Details of the expenses claimed by the Scottish Ministers against the Trump Organisation (“the Organisation”) in any Account(s) of Expenses prepared by or on behalf of the Scottish Ministers in relation to the expenses awarded in the Ministers’ favour in the Organisation’s Petition for Judicial Review and, separately, their Reclaiming Motion (and any application for permission to Appeal to the Supreme Court). I would be content to accept this information in the form of disclosing the Account of Expenses itself. Absent disclosure of the Account, this head of request includes but not limited to details of:
a. Each item of Charges/Fees included in the Account(s) of Expenses including the details of the entry, the narrative provided therein, the date of the entry and the amount
b. Each item of Outlay included in the Account(s) of Expenses including the details of the entry, the narrative provided therein, the date of the entry and the amount. For the avoidance of doubt, Outlay includes Counsel’s fees

2. Details of any Additional Fee contended for by the Ministers in relation to such award of expenses.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) 36(1) confidentiality in legal proceedings (covers legal advice) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.
In relation to paragraph 2, we are able to provide a copy of the Court’s interlocutor dated 27 February 2019.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exemption applies
An exemption(s) under section(s) 36(1) of FOISA applies to all of the information you have requested. The Scottish Government is not able to release the information you have requested as it is information in respect of which a claim to confidentiality of communications could be maintained in legal proceedings (for example, if information is “legal privileged”).
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-19-02631 Information released

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2 page PDF

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136.1 kB