First Minister's visit to the Acorn Project and Peterhead Port: EIR release

Information requested

Could you supply all minutes/notes from meetings, briefing notes and correspondence held relating to John Swinney's visit to the Acorn Project and Peterhead port on Monday July 22?

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.

I enclose a copy of the information you requested contained within 18 PDFs which are attached separately. The PDF titled "EIR 202400429343 - Documents and Correspondence - FOR RELEASE" lists the documents and contains collated correspondence.

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. The exception to this are the names of individuals at Deputy Director level or above within the Scottish Government, Special Advisors and Senior Managing Directors of external organisations. Regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) 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.

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 exception under regulations of the EIRs applies to that information. These are:

• 11(2) - Third party personal data
• 10(4)(e) - Internal communications
• 10(5)(a) - Substantial prejudice to international relations, public safety etc.
• 10(5)(e) - Substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information

The reasons why exceptions apply are explained in the Annex attached separately to this letter, titled "EIR 202400429343 - Annex to Letter".

These exceptions (barring 11(2) as outlined above) are 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 the release of information in order to maintain an open and transparent government. However, in this case, that is outweighed by the public interest in the government being able to maintain confidentiality to protect commercial interests of stakeholders, maintain public safety and ensure that officials can internally liaise openly and freely regarding policy development and internal matters.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400429343 - Information released - Annex

File type

1 page PDF

File size

90.1 kB

EIR 202400429343 - Information released - Documents

File type

304 page PDF

File size

2.8 MB