Briefing notes on the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee: EIR release

Information requested

Briefing notes to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance ahead of their appearance at the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 27 September 2022, 24 January 2023 and 23 January 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.

Response to your request

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance did not appear before the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on 27 September 2022 or 24 January 2023 therefore there are no briefing materials to provide for these dates.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

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.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception relates to internal communications and applies in this situation given the internal nature of the document provided to the Cabinet Secretary.

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 because there is an interest in open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the ability of Ministers to receive free and frank advice, and as much of the information relates to policies which are still under development or are still to be implemented, releasing the details could be detrimental to the effective working of government.

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 202400433582 - Information Released - Annex

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