Israeli Deputy Ambassador Visit: FOI Review

Information requested

Orginal Request 202400426411

1. Was the Israeli Deputy Ambassador invited or did she request a visit and who approved this?
2. Which members of the Cabinet and Ministers agreed to, were aware of the visit and who agreed this should be kept from the public until after the event?
3. Was an agenda set for the meeting and if so who prepared it, and what did it include?
4. The full minutes of the meeting and any future meetings planned with the Israeli embassy.
5. Which other Scottish agencies are involved in collaborations/cooperations with Israel? E.g Scottish Enterprise
6. Will Scottish Goverment funding for culture/arts be conditional on engagement with Israel or limit ability for projects to be critical of Israel and government complicity.

Response

I have now completed my review (case reference 202400426411) of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). I have considered each individual question in your request, as below:

Firstly, we apologise that we did not correctly refer to the exemption 32(1)(a)(i)(international relations) in our original response as it should have contained the (i) to specify the exemption we were applying. I will rectify below where it applies.

1. Was the Israeli Deputy Ambassador invited or did she request a visit and who approved this?

For this question, I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed. I am modifying the initial response by pointing you to the most relevant section of the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture’s statement, which was linked to you in our previous response.
‘I met the new Israeli UK Deputy Ambassador at their request. [...] It was rightly for me to decide whether to take the meeting, however, as is normal practice, the First Minister was made aware before the meeting happened.’

As the Cabinet Secretary indicated in his statement, deciding whether to accept meetings from foreign diplomats is part of his role, and this meeting was accepted in this usual manner.

2. Which members of the Cabinet and Ministers agreed to, were aware of the visit and who agreed this should be kept from the public until after the event?

The normal decision-making process for accepting meeting invitations from foreign diplomats is for Scottish Government officials to prepare a submission for the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, detailing relevant background and context, outlining options available, and recommending a decision to be made. Taking the information in the submission into account, the Cabinet Secretary will then take a decision on whether to accept or decline the invitation. In this particular case, given the sensitivity of the meeting, the First Minister was copied into this submission. No other members of Cabinet or Ministers were copied into the submission regarding the Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the UK’s meeting invitation. No other Ministers attended the meeting with Cabinet Secretary Robertson.

The original response to the second part of your question, which refers to ‘keep[ing] [the meeting] from the public until after the event’, used exemption 32(1)(a)(i) Relations between UK and any other state.

This was a mistake. The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture’s engagements, including meetings with foreign diplomats, are not typically communicated to the public in advance. They are typically shared on Scottish Government social media channels in the days after the meeting takes place - in this case, the meeting was communicated on the 12th August from the @ScotGovInter account on X.

3. Was an agenda set for the meeting and if so who prepared it, and what did it include?

There was a suggested agenda set for the meeting. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the name of the individual who prepared the agenda as their name is exempt from disclosure under 38(1)(b) of FOISA.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to the name of the individual who prepared the agenda because it is personal data of a civil servant who is below Senior Civil Service grade, 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.
We cannot provide the agenda included as the information you have requested is exempt under 32(1) (a)(i) of FOISA.

The reason for this decision is that to release information withheld under 32(1)(a)(i) would cause substantial prejudice to the relationship between Israel and the UK as a whole. Where another State has the expectation that communications are confidential between that State and the UK Government, or the devolved governments, disclosure of this information may as a result prejudice relations between the UK Government, its devolved administrations, and that State. In this case it is considered that this would be likely to happen and that the prejudice would be substantial. It has therefore been assessed that disclosure would be likely to inhibit Israel’s willingness to have open dialogue with the UK Government and devolved governments in future, if they are aware that such information might subsequently be disclosed.

In the process of my review, I have also considered prior relevant judgements by the Scottish Information Commissioner, such as Decision 050/2016 | Scottish Information Commissioner (foi.scot) and Decision 029/2021 | Scottish Information Commissioner (foi.scot). in which the application of this exemption was considered by the Commissioner. The points set out in these decisions were relevant to this case and assisted my decision making.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’, which has also been considered as part of this review process. Taking into account all of the circumstances of this case, I have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. I have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. In this case there is greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space to communicate with other governments. This private space for communication with, and confidence in, the UK Government would be compromised if this information were to be released.

4. The full minutes of the meeting and any future meetings planned with the Israeli embassy.

For this question, I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed.

We cannot provide the minutes of the meeting as the information you have requested is exempt under 32(1)(a)(i) of FOISA. The reason for this decision is that to release information withheld under 32(1)(a) (i) would cause substantial prejudice to the relationship between Israel and the UK as a whole. Where another State has the expectation that communications are confidential between that State and the UK Government, or the devolved governments, disclosure of this information may as a result prejudice relations between the UK Government, its devolved administrations, and that State. In this case it is considered that this would be likely to happen and that the prejudice would be substantial. It has therefore been assessed that disclosure would be likely to inhibit Israel’s willingness to have open dialogue with the UK Government and devolved governments in future, if they are aware that such information might subsequently be disclosed.
In the process of my review, I have also considered prior relevant judgements by the Scottish Information Commissioner, such as Decision 050/2016 | Scottish Information Commissioner (foi.scot) and Decision 029/2021 | Scottish Information Commissioner (foi.scot). in which the application of this exemption was considered by the Commissioner. The points set out in these decisions were relevant to this case and assisted my decision making.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’, which has also been considered as part of this review process. Taking into account all of the circumstances of this case, I have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. I have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. In this case there is greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space to communicate with other governments. This private space for communication with, and confidence in, the UK Government would be compromised if this information were to be released.

5. Which other Scottish agencies are involved in collaborations/cooperation's with Israel? Eg Scottish Enterprise

This is a formal notice under 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government cannot access information or correspondence from Scottish agencies, and nor do we process Freedom of Information requests on their behalf. To find the answer to your question, you would need to contact each individual agency’s Freedom of Information department. Taking the example you mentioned of Scottish Enterprise, you can contact them at FOI@scotent.co.uk.

6. Will Scottish Government funding for culture/arts be conditional on engagement with Israel or limit ability for projects to be critical of Israel and government complicity.

This is a formal notice under 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.. This is because you are seeking an opinion on the Scottish Government’s position regarding funding, and a Freedom of Information response is unable to provide you with this information. Therefore I invite you to correspond with the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture separately seeking his comments or opinion on this question, at CabSecCEAC@gov.scot.

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.