Deposit Return Scheme - Meeting with Industry of 7 June 2023: EIR release

Information requested

“I am looking to request details, under the Freedom of Information Act, of the meeting which took place on Wednesday, June 7 between Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater, First Minister Humza Yousaf and representatives of Scottish industry, as referred to in a press release issued today: The First Minister and Circular Economy Minister met with businesses on 7 June to discuss the implications of the UK Government’s decision.

Can you please give all the names of attendees, the companies they were representing, by which format the meeting was conducted (in person or via video call, or conference call - or a mixture), the length of the meeting, any minutes and an agenda if one exists?”

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.

Response to your request

The First Minister, Humza Yousaf, convened a meeting with businesses to discuss the Deposit Return Scheme on 7 June 2023. This meeting was held via video conference and lasted for 1 hour and 6 minutes.

I have listed the organisations in attendance in Annex B and the minutes of the meeting in Annex C.

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.

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.

EIR 202300360585 - Information Released - Annex A, B and C

File type

11 page PDF

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195.9 kB