FOI/202100167563 · FOI/EIR · not held
Official meeting with Miller Homes 16 January 2020: EIR release
Information requested
Please can you provide details of the following meeting Scottish Government Minister, Kevin Stewart meeting Miller Homes on the 16 January 2020 Details being sought include
Pre meeting briefing(s) Agenda of any meeting Venue and list of attendees on visit Minutes or notes from any meeting Post meeting action points
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. Attached is a copy of the briefing provided to the Minister for Local Government Housing and Planning dated 10 January 2020 which satisfies parts 1, 2, and 3 of your request. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information in these documents because exceptions apply to some information within this material under regulation 10(4) (e) (internal communications) relating to policy advice and decision making. I have considered the public interest test in relation to the exception and found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in ensuring there is space for officials to provide frank advice to inform decisions. After a search of our records I have established that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested in relation to parts 4 and 5 of your request. Therefore we are refusing these elements of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held). The reason that no notes of the meeting were produced is because there were no specific action points as a consequence of the meeting. While this exception is subject to the public interest test, we clearly cannot provide information we do not hold. 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.
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 all of the information in these documents because exceptions apply to some information within this material under regulation 10(4) (e) (internal communications) relating to policy advice and decision making.