EIR/202600514232 · FOI/EIR · not held
NatureScot's Nature Investment Partnership and Aberdeen's aCANIF programme correspondence: EIR release
Information requested
1) All communications to and from NatureScot regarding Aberdeen investment management company’s participation in NatureScot's Nature Investment Partnership and/or Aberdeen's aCANIF programme, dating from 1 September 2025 to date, including but not exclusively, emails, memos and reports sent by any medium
2) Copies of all minutes, agendas, notes of meetings involving NatureScot and the Scottish government from 1 September 2025 to date, held or recorded by any medium, regarding Aberdeen's involvement with the Nature Investment Partnership and/or its aCANIF programme
3) All reports to, or notes of verbal briefings or any other form of communication given to Scottish government ministers regarding Aberdeen’s involvement with the Nature Investment Partnership and/or its aCANIF programme, from 1 September 2025 to date
4) All Scottish government communications to and from NatureScot, including but not exclusively from or to ministers, special advisors and officials, regarding Aberdeen’s involvement in the Nature Investment Partnership and/or its aCANIF programme dating from 1 September 2025 to date, held or recorded in any medium
5) All notes, memos, briefings or reports given to Scottish ministers, including but not exclusively Jim Fairlie, then minister for agriculture, regarding the parliamentary question lodged by Rhoda Grant on 10 March 2027 (question number S6W-44136) regarding the Nature Investment Partnership which the minister answered on 17 March 2027, held or recorded in any medium
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.
Questions 1 & 5
I have included copies of the information you have requested in the attached Annex B.
On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in the attached Annex A.
Questions 2, 3 & 4
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested.
With regards to Question 2 of your request, there has been no meetings between the Scottish Government and NatureScot within the timeframe you have requested regarding the topic of Aberdeen's involvement with the Nature Investment Partnership and/or its aCANIF programme.
Similarly for Questions 3 and 4, there has been no ministerial or special adviser involvement within this timeframe.
This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.
While we recognise that there may be some public interest in the information that you have requested, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.
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. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.