Potential purchase from Sealease Ltd of Hong Kong: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202300362586

Copies of all emails and other communication relating to the potential purchase of a 60m catamaran from Sealease Ltd of Hong Kong, through 2020 and 2021. This should include all internal Transport Scotland communications, as well as those to and from Transport Scotland and its partner agencies CMAL and CalMac Ferries and any other parts of government. Please also provide copies of all advice given to ministers on the subject, and any reports, studies or information referred to in any of the communications.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

'Copies of all emails and other communication relating to the potential purchase of a 60m catamaran from Sealease Ltd of Hong Kong, through 2020 and 2021. This should include all internal Transport Scotland communications, as well as those to and from Transport Scotland and its partner agencies CMAL and CalMac Ferries and any other parts of government. Please also provide copies of all advice given to ministers on the subject, and any reports, studies or information referred to in any of the communications.'

Your request for a review:

1. I therefore request that copies of all advice given to Ministers on this topic are provided, as per the original request.

2. There have been no subsequent emails sent to me, so I would like it to be clarified if the search is still continuing, if more emails have been found, or none.

3. There is very liberal use of section 30(b) exemptions in the returned correspondence.

4. The assessment of public interest has not been appropriate in relation to the section 30(b) redactions.

5. I am not satisfied that exemption 36(1) (Confidentiality) has been correctly applied in any of the instances it has been used.

As part of my review, I will therefore consider whether in responding to your request we have identified all of the information which was held and also give further consideration to the information previously withheld under section 30(b)(i) and (ii) and section 36(1) and where appropriate the application of the public interest test.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

In conducting my review, I have revisited the searches undertaken to identify the information held. In doing so, I have identified some further information which can now be disclosed.

In addition, having reviewed the information that was previously redacted under section 30(b)(i) and (ii) in the initial response to your request, I can confirm that some further information can now be released as the exemptions did not apply to this information.

This information is included as an attachment.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, I am satisfied that a small amount of the information previously withheld under section 30(b)(i) and (ii) and section 36(1) remains exempt from disclosure. I acknowledge that our initial response could have been more helpful in setting out the reasons why these exemptions apply. I have therefore set out the reasons in Annex A to this letter.

In addition, some personal data has been redacted from the additional documents I have identified as part of my review as an exemption under section 38(1)(b) would apply to this information. Again, I have set out the reasoning in more detail in Annex A to this letter.

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 202300375309 - Information released - Annex A

File type

2 page PDF

File size

79.1 kB

FOI 202300375309 - Information released - Attachment

File type

107 page PDF

File size

1.7 MB