Cabinet Secretary for Transport list of engagements: EIR release

Information requested

• A list of Fiona Hyslop’s engagements as Cabinet Secretary for Transport from 1 November 2024 to date.
• The minutes of the above engagements from 1 November 2024 to date.

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

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 (internal communications) applies to some of the information requested because it is internal communication between government departments and its bodies. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.
This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. This means we have taken account of all the circumstances of the case and considered whether, on balance, disclosing the information is outweighed by the public good to be had by applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of applying the exception and I have outlined the specific reasons for this below.

We do recognise that there is some public interest in releasing this information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the ability for Transport Scotland officials to be able to discuss, debate and have a private thinking space ensuring decisions can be made in an environment which does not hamper this process. In order to do so they must be able to properly discuss risks identified, debate and exchange views.
Officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications and therefore it would not be appropriate to release information ahead of that process concluding.

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 202400445231 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

310.2 kB

FOI 202400445231 - Information Released - Spreadsheet

File type

Excel document

File size

14.6 kB