Briefing provided to Minister Fergus Ewing prior to his meetings with Marine Harvest/Mowi: EIR release

Information requested

Pre-meeting briefing provided to then Minister Fergus Ewing prior to his meetings with Marine Harvest/Mowi, a list of all attendees and the agenda for each meeting. These meetings took place on 20 August 2017, 24 April 2018, 12 November 2018 (this was a dinner, can you also provide details of the dinner, the venue, cost and who paid for it), 8 April 2019, 29th May 2019.

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.

The information you have requested is attached in the table below:

Date of meeting/dinner	Document		Exception applied
20 August 2017	No document held		10(4)(a) information not held
24 April 2018	Doc 1: Briefing: Seafood Exposition Global: Fergus Ewing meeting with Marine Harvest, Expo Centre, Brussels		11 (2) Personal data of a third party 10(4)(e) internal communications
12 November 2018	Doc 2: Briefing: Fergus Ewing – Marine Harvest Capital Markets dinner, Edinburgh Castle Ministerial engagements: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/.		10(4)(a) information not held 6(1)(b) information publicly available
8 April 2019	Doc 3: Briefing: Fergus Ewing meeting with aquaculture companies, Atlantic Quay Glasgow		10(4)(e) internal communications 11(2) Personal data of a third party
29 May 2019	Doc 4: Briefing: Fergus Ewing with Ben Hadfield, MD MOWI, Scottish Parliament Annex B -attached separately Annex D - available online at scottish-salmon-2018- economic-report (salmonscotland.co.uk)		11(2) Personal data of a third party 6(1)(b) information publicly available

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have, or is withholding some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing part of your request under the exceptions at regulation 10(4)(a), 10(4)(e), 11(2) and 6(1)(b) of the EIRs. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX: REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Regulation 10(4)(a) - information not held

EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not hold.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about meetings between Mr Ewing and aquaculture businesses, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Regulation 10(4)(e) - internal communications

An exception under 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (Internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication in the form of Ministerial briefings, notes and emails between Scottish Government Ministers and officials about the above meetings with aquaculture businesses.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on the aquaculture industry will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.

Regulation 11(2) - Personal data of a third party exception

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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 exception 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 exception.

Regulation 6(1)(b) Information already publicly available

Some of the information you have requested is available from the websites listed in the table above. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 202300383165 - Information released - Annex

File type

57 page PDF

File size

1.0 MB