Russia, Iran and Israel documentation: FOI release

Information requested

- All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Russia from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

- All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Iran from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

- All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Israel from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

Response

All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Russia from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. You can find this attached in Annex A.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b), personal information, 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.

An exemption under section 28(1), relations within the United Kingdom, of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested because disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between administrations in the UK.

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.

All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Iran from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

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 documentation from Iran within these time frames. 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.

All documentation held by the Scottish Government about or from Israel from the last three months, including correspondence, minutes from meetings, briefings.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is because the broad scope of your request requires a significant amount of resource to locate, retrieve and provide the information requested. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: https://www.itspublicknowledge.info/how-do-i-ask.

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 202400426084 - Information released - Annex A

File type

10 page PDF

File size

489.0 kB