Correspondence relating to the establishment of a publicly owned energy company: FOI release

Information requested

1. Any written and/or recorded correspondence (including letters, emails, and the recordings and/or minutes of telephone conversations or meetings) since January 2018 between Scottish Government ministers and/or civil servants regarding the establishment of a Scottish Government-owned energy
company

2. Any written and/or recorded correspondence (including letters, emails, and the recordings and/or minutes of telephone conversations or meetings) since January 2018 of Scottish Government ministers and/or civil servants with external agencies regarding the establishment of a Scottish Governmentowned energy company. 

Response

Attached is a copy of the information requested. Exemptions apply to some of the information requested. Please see the annex for more detail on this.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

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. the names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. 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.

An exemption applies, subject to the public interest test.

An exemption under section 29 (1) (a) of FOISA (Relates to formulation of policy) applies to some of the information requested because it is relates to the formulation of active polices.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open and transparent government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the strong public interest in ensuring the possibility for the consideration or development of options and priorities for Scottish Ministers, who will subsequently determine which of these should be translated into political action and/or legislation and when.

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.

FOI202100241534 - Information released

File type

20 page PDF

File size

2.4 MB