Former First Minister's meeting with the President of Turkey: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide all minutes, notes or summaries taken at the First Minister's meeting with the President of Turkey during the meeting at COP28 in UAE on December 1.

2. Please also provide any correspondence between the First Minister, special advisers or Scottish Government officials and the Turkish government in the rest of December 2023 after the meeting took place.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the PDF attached.

In response to your first question, the information you have requested is available from:

• Meeting with Turkey and Lebanese delegations at COP28: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. 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.

In response to your second question, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under sections s.32(1)(a) (Substantial prejudice to international relations) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below.

An exemption under section s.32(1)(a) of FOISA applies to some the information you have requested. This is because the information includes exchanges with the Turkish Government.

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 because of recent media interest in this topic and interest in openness and transparency in government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the Scottish Government being able to build strong relationships with other countries.

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 202400393551 - Information released - Attachment

File type

1 page PDF

File size

74.8 kB