Contact with foreign Governments: FOI release

Information requested

1. The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Russian Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

2. The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Iranian Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

3. The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Chinese Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

4. The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the government in Gaza. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

Response

The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Russian Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested.

The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Iranian Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you requested.

The Scottish Government has no contact with the government in Iran. At present, all contact with the government in Iran, including the Iranian Embassy in London, that is addressed to the Scottish Government is handled by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the Chinese Government. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested because it is personal data of a third party (i.e. names/contact details of individuals), 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 exemption 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 exemption.

The last time any Scottish Government minister or official made contact with the government in Gaza. Please provide the exact date of this contact and the details of the correspondence, including notes, minutes etc. taken of any meeting and who attended.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you requested.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed by Hamas, who have been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United Kingdom. As such, there has been no contact between the Scottish Government and the government in Gaza.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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 202400402670 - Information released - Attachments 1 & 2

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