Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity meeting relating to Deposit Return Scheme (DRS): EIR release

Information requested

1. “A list of Lorna Slater’s meeting on the Deposit Return Scheme between 1 July 2023 to 18 August 2023.”
2. “The minutes Lorna Slater’s meeting on the Deposit Return Scheme between 1 July 2023 to 18 August 2023.”
3. “The number meeting that the Scottish Government had with Circularity Scotland, and its administrators, from 1 June 2023 to 18 August 2023.”

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

Questions 1 & 2

The Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater, has attended meetings in the period specified in your request (1 July 2023 to 18 August 2023) regarding the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) on the following dates:

• 25 July 2023
• 2 August 2023

The Scottish Government proactively publishes information in regards to Ministerial Engagements. This information is updated on a monthly basis, with recent engagements being published up to twelve weeks in arrears.

I have included copies of the minutes relating to the above noted meetings in Annex B below for your convenience.

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.

Question 3

There have been three meetings between the Scottish Government and the appointed administrators for Circularity Scotland (CSL), Interpath Advisory, in the period specified in your request (1 June 2023 to 18 August 2023) on the following dates:

• 3 June 2023
• 3 July 2023
• 9 August 2023

I would note that CSL staff attended the meeting of 23 June 2023, however, the subsequent meetings of 3 July and 9 August 2023 respectively were solely between Scottish Government officials and representatives from Interpath Advisory.

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 202300372640 - Information Released - Annex A and B

File type

6 page PDF

File size

133.9 kB