Correspondence regarding meetings with Chinese Embassy: FOI release

Information requested

- An outline of all government minister meetings with the Chinese Embassy from 2023 until now and all correspondence relating to these meetings.

Response

Most of the information you have request is available here:

Meeting between the First Minister and China’s Ambassador to the UK – 6 August 2024: Meeting between the First Minister and the Chinese Ambassador to the UK: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and Chinese Consul General in Scotland– 12 June 2024: Proposed friendship arrangement with the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Meeting between the former First Minister and Chinese Consul General in Scotland – 16 January 2024: Meeting of Former First Minister and Chinese Consul General in Scotland: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and Chinese Consul General in Scotland – 17 May 2023: Minutes of meetings between Angus Robertson and Consul General Zhang Biao: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send
you a paper copy.

One further meeting has taken place between a Scottish Government Minister and the Chinese Embassy in the requested timeframe. The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture met with the Chinese Consul General in Scotland on 9 November 2023.

With regards to this meeting, I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested. This can be found at 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 32(1)(a), international relations, of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested. Information is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between the UK and another state.

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.

We recognise that there is some public interest in disclosing information on UK relations as part of open government and transparency. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the Scottish and UK Governments being able to maintain good and honest relations with states they choose to engage with.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you requested.

With regards to the correspondence relating to this meeting, due to information management protocol this has not been retained and is therefore not available for release.

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

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.

FOI 202400433415 - Information Released - Annex A

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