FOI/202500490070 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Minutes and correspondence from meetings with Mingyang Smart Energy Group: EIR release
Information requested
a) All minutes of meetings between the Scottish Government and the wind energy company Mingyang (whether as Mingyang Smart Energy Group or its various subsidiaries) and
b) All correspondence between the Scottish Government and the wind energy company Mingyang (whether as Mingyang Smart Energy Group or its various subsidiaries).
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.
I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested at Annex A accompanying this letter.
Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government Freedom of Information Document Collection at Freedom of information (FOI): document collection - gov.scot, further details are included at Annex A of this letter. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
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 exceptions under Regulation 10(4)(e) (internal communications), Regulation 10(5)(e) (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) and; Regulation 11(2) (personal data) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in Annex B to this letter.
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.
Detected exemption language
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. 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 exceptions under Regulation 10(4)(e) (internal communications), Regulation 10(5)(e) (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) and; Regulation 11(2) (personal data) of the EIRs applies to that information.