Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity correspondence with Circularity Scotland: EIR release

Information requested

• Please provide me with a copy of emails sent between the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity's office and Circularity Scotland from August 2021 until January 2022
• Please provide me with a copy of minutes taken during physical/telephone/virtual meetings between the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity and Circularity Scotland from August 2021 to January 2022

Please be aware that this case is being handled under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs). Under regulation 5(2)(a) of the EIRs, our response to your request was due on 22 February, however we wrote to you on 2 March and on 25 July explaining that there was a delay in getting this information to you. This delay is due to the extended time it has taken to clarify the information below and attached, and due to changes in resource in the Scottish Government Department handling this case. Thank you for your patience in awaiting this information, and apologies again for the very delayed reply to your request.

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

I have enclosed a copy of some of the information as requested. These documents will be sent in a separate e-mail.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, substantially prejudice the confidentiality of commercial information provided by Circularity Scotland Ltd, and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the ability for confidential information to be shared with Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Government and the fact that release of this information would be likely to cause substantial harm to the legitimate economic interests of the party that provided it. There is additional public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which enter into Scottish Government contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR - 202200275672 - information released - Annex A

File type

22 page PDF

File size

2.2 MB

EIR - 202200275672 - information released - Annex B

File type

14 page PDF

File size

1.9 MB