Expenses for the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands overseas trips: EIR release

Information requested

Could you supply the full expenses/receipts, including full details of officials expenses, from Mairi Gougeons trip to Chile in March 2024?
-could you also provide all minutes/notes from meetings during this trip and briefings as well?

Could you supply the full expenses/receipts, including full details of officials expenses, from Mairi Gougeons trip to Barcelona in April 2024?
-could you also provide all minutes/notes from meetings during this trip and briefings as well?

On 19 September 2024 clarification on your request was sought and received. Your revised request was confirmed as:

“Total expenses for Ms Gougeon and supporting policy officials for the officials visits to Chile (March 2024) and Barcelona (April 2024), with the split between Cabinet and policy official expenses provided; and Briefings and notes of any meetings which Ms Gougeon undertook in Chile and Barcelona during the official visits in March and April 2024."

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.

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, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answer to the first part of your ask (for: total expenses for Ms Gougeon and supporting policy officials for the officials visits to Chile (March 2024) and Barcelona (April 2024), with the split between Cabinet and policy official expenses provided) is as follows:

- The total cost of official travel and expenses for the official visit to Chile in March 2024 is £25,075.71.

- The total cost of official travel and expenses for the official visit to Barcelona in April 2024 is £3,028.57.

The total cost of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands travel and expenses for the official visits to Chile and Barcelona, can be found at the following links:

• Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts: March 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts: April 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

However, under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we have summarised the totals for each trip below:

- The total cost of Ministerial travel and expenses for the official visit to Chile in March 2024 is £8,186.03.

- The total cost of Ministerial travel and expenses for the official visit to Barcelona in April 2024 is £1,023.17.

With respect to the second part of your ask (for Briefings and notes of any meetings which Ms Gougeon undertook in Chile and Barcelona during the official visits in March and April 2024), I have identified 19 documents within scope of this request. Some of these items have been withheld in full (4 items) under regulation 10(4)(d) (Material in the course of completion, etc) – please find further information regarding this is provided in the Annex below. I am releasing copies of 15 documents to you and these have been combined in a single “Index of Enclosures” PDF document released to you.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some the information you have requested because an exceptions under regulations 10(4)(d) (Material in the course of completion, etc), 10(4)(e) (internal communications) and 11(2) (personal data of a third party). The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Exceptions apply

Regulation 10(4)(d) – material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete data

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested because four of the internal, draft (incomplete) documents within the scope of your request have been withheld in full.

The reason for this is, that at the time of your request, the final versions of all these documents were all completed. Therefore, we have instead released copies of these – the final official record of any meetings and the final briefings in all cases where a draft internal document has been withheld. This exception 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 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 release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and this has been met by release of the final versions of the documents to you. However, for the draft versions, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that incomplete information is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates and which was incomplete.

Regulation 10(4)(e) – internal communications

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested within items released to you, that is, a small number of extracts within the briefing and minute materials disclosed. This is because it is internal communication between officials and Scottish Ministers about lines to take, policy, national and commercial business sensitivities.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide free and frank advice and views to Ministers. It is clearly in the public interest that Ministers can properly answer Parliamentary questions, provide sound information to Parliament (to which they are accountable), and robustly defend the Government’s policies and decisions. They need full and candid advice from officials to enable them to do so. Premature disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

Regulation 11(2) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party

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. This exception 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.

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 202400431722 - Information released - Index of enclosures

File type

161 page PDF

File size

3.7 MB