Climate Change Bill correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

All minutes/notes from meetings, all correspondence sent and received by the Government, including internally, about the Government's Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill, from the last three months.

Response

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

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 an exception(s) under regulations (as below) of the EIRs applies to that information.

• 10(4)(e) Internal Communications
• 11(2) Third party personal data
• 10(5)(f) Substantial Prejudice to Interest of Third Party.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested, as the information is internal communications between Scottish Government officials and Scottish Ministers. 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 of interest in an open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in consideration when private space to discuss topics at preliminary stages is required.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have 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(5)(f) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested, as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, cause substantial prejudice to the interests of a person who provided information voluntarily to the authority. 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.

Some of the information our searches returned is publicly available. Please see below links to the relevant webpages:

https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/bureau/bureau-minutes-2024/20240910-minute.pdf
https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/bureau/bureau-minutes-2024/20240917-minute.pdf
https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/bureau/bureau-minutes-2024/20240924-minute.pdf
https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/bureau/bureau-papers/bureau-papers-2024/20240910-25th-meeting/pb_2024_paper133.pdf
The Climate Reset.pdf (greens.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.

EIR 202400434085 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

1.4 MB