Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF) invitations and dinner: FOI Review

Information requested

Original Request 202400403613

All correspondences to/from Humza Yousaf relating to invitations to a Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF) in September 2015 which were sent out in May 2015 to a number of distinguished and/or influential leaders. I would like to understand how the list of attendees was decided upon and also why the Scottish Government sent the invitations and hosted the dinner because this was organised by the Islamic Finance Council UK (IFC) who were heavily funded by Scottish Government.

What remit does / did IFC UK have regarding developing ethical finance?

What responses were received from each of the invitees and who actually attended the dinner. Were any other VIPs sent invitations by Humza Yousaf other than those listed below?

Was any guidance sought or received from the FCDO regarding the invitation of fairly influential people to this Forum

What was the cost to the Scottish Government for hosting the dinner and what budgets was it paid from?

Any correspondences between Humza Yousaf and the First Minister regarding the sending of the invitations and the hosting of the dinner.

The invitations which have been shared in a prior FOI response 202400395815 include those to :

The Most Revd. And Rt Hon. Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury
Governor Central Bank of Kuwait
Governor Central Bank of Bahrain
Chief Executive Officer Dubai Islamic Bank
General Counsel, Executive Vice President Legal Group Head Office Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Chair of the PRI Advisory Council The Principles for Responsible Investment
Managing Director, Head of ESG State Street Global Advisors
Americas Head, Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment BlackRock
Managing Director Crescent Wealth
Laurence A Tisch Professor of History Harvard University Center for European Studies
Group Chief Executive Officer Noor Investment Group LLC Downtown Dubai
Professor of Management Practice Harvard Business School
Secretary General Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions Al Nakheel Tower
Secretary General Islamic Financial Services Board
Director of International Activities International Financial Reporting Stanadrds Foundation
Senior Advisor to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive HSBC holdings
President Islamic Development Bank
Director, The Earth Institute Columbia University
President and Chief Executive Officer Pax World Mutual Funds
Chief Executive Officer Triodos Bank
Chief Executive Officer F&C Asset Management plc
Head, Derivatives and Structured Finance The World Bank
Managing Director Principles for Responsible Investment
Senior Fellow Initiative for Responsible Investment Harvard University
Chief Executive Prudential Regulation Authority
Managing Director Vanguard Asset Management
Chief Executive Officer Hermes Investment Management
Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Office, Equities Calvert Investment Management Inc
President Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies
Chief Executive Officer Arabesque Asset Management Ltd
Emir of Kano Central Bank of Nigeria
Chief Executive Officer Al Rayan Bank

Response

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

All correspondences to/from Humza Yousaf relating to invitations to a Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF) in September 2015 which were sent out in May 2015 to a number of distinguished and/or influential leaders. I would like to understand how the list of attendees was decided upon and also why the Scottish Government sent the invitations and hosted the dinner because this was organised by the Islamic Finance Council UK (IFC) who were heavily funded by Scottish Government.

What remit does / did IFC UK have regarding developing ethical finance?

What responses were received from each of the invitees and who actually attended the dinner. Were any other VIPs sent invitations by Humza Yousaf other than those listed below?

Was any guidance sought or received from the FCDO regarding the invitation of fairly influential people to this Forum

What was the cost to the Scottish Government for hosting the dinner and what budgets was it paid from?

Any correspondences between Humza Yousaf and the First Minister regarding the sending of the invitations and the hosting of the dinner.

The invitations which have been shared in a prior FOI response 202400395815 include those to :

The Most Revd. And Rt Hon. Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury
Governor Central Bank of Kuwait
Governor Central Bank of Bahrain
Chief Executive Officer Dubai Islamic Bank
General Counsel, Executive Vice President Legal Group Head Office Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Chair of the PRI Advisory Council The Principles for Responsible Investment
Managing Director, Head of ESG State Street Global Advisors
Americas Head, Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment BlackRock
Managing Director Crescent Wealth
Laurence A Tisch Professor of History Harvard University Center for European Studies
Group Chief Executive Officer Noor Investment Group LLC Downtown Dubai
Professor of Management Practice Harvard Business School
Secretary General Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions Al Nakheel Tower
Secretary General Islamic Financial Services Board
Director of International Activities International Financial Reporting Stanadrds Foundation
Senior Advisor to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive HSBC holdings
President Islamic Development Bank
Director, The Earth Institute Columbia University
President and Chief Executive Officer Pax World Mutual Funds
Chief Executive Officer Triodos Bank
Chief Executive Officer F&C Asset Management plc
Head, Derivatives and Structured Finance The World Bank
Managing Director Principles for Responsible Investment
Senior Fellow Initiative for Responsible Investment Harvard University
Chief Executive Prudential Regulation Authority
Managing Director Vanguard Asset Management
Chief Executive Officer Hermes Investment Management
Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Office, Equities Calvert Investment Management Inc
President Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies
Chief Executive Officer Arabesque Asset Management Ltd
Emir of Kano Central Bank of Nigeria
Chief Executive Officer Al Rayan Bank

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications relating to the request for “responses received from each of the invitees”. I will provide a summary of my findings below for each of your requests which I hope you will find useful in relation to correspondence provided.

Question 1

• “All correspondences to/from Humza Yousaf relating to invitations to a Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF) in September 2015 which were sent out in May 2015 to a number of distinguished and/or influential leaders.

I have conducted additional searches as part of my review, expanding the search dates for correspondence to/from Humza Yousaf relating to invitations from May 2015 to include the date range May 2015 to September 2015. This search result returned no additional results.

Question 2

• What remit does / did IFC UK have regarding developing ethical finance?

I have reviewed this and would advise that the Scottish Government does not hold this information and an exemption under s.17 of FOISA applies. You may wish to visit their website: Home - Islamic Finance Council UK (ukifc.com) for further information.

Question 3

• What responses were received from each of the invitees and who actually attended the dinner. Were any other VIPs sent invitations by Humza Yousaf other than those listed below?

Following my review I have identified a number of responses by email which relate to your request and I now include these in this response, however, while our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) Personal information of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why the exemptions apply are explained in Annex A.

Question 4

• Was any guidance sought or received from the FCDO regarding the invitation of fairly influential people to this Forum

Following my review I can confirm that this is formal notice under section 17 (1) of the FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question 5

• What was the cost to the Scottish Government for hosting the dinner and what budgets was it paid from?

Following my review I can confirm that we have provided the information that we hold in relation to this in
the original response.

Question 6

• Any correspondences between Humza Yousaf and the First Minister regarding the sending of the invitations and the hosting of the dinner.

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

ANNEX A
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

S17: The Scottish Government does not have the information
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for regarding the remit of the IFCUK and the full list of invitees to the GEFF 2015 event and their responses because it is  not retained by the Scottish Government in accordance with our standard records management practice. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

S38: Personal Information
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 section 38(1(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to a small amount of that information, being the personal data of a third party, i.e. the names of junior officials and personal details of other persons. Disclosing such 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.

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 202400408802 - Information Released - Annex

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