EIR/202600517954 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence regarding Grangemouth oil refinery future business use: EIR release
Information requested
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act (2002) to request the following information. Please provide all internal communication regarding the Grangemouth oil refinery and its future business use from November 2025 to date of receipt. Please also provide all correspondence on the matter with Scottish Enterprise, The Ministry of Defence and UK Department of Business and Trade, as well as any UK cabinet ministers/ their offices.
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. Some of the information you have requested is available at this website (click link to access): Grangemouth investment opportunities. 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 exceptions apply under regulations 11(2) personal data of a third party, 10(5)(e) confidentiality of commercial or industrial information and 10(4)(e) internal communications, of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.
Annexes to the Standard Response- Reasons for not providing information
Exceptions apply
Regulation 11(2) (personal data of a third party) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.
The application of regulation 11(2) is subject to the 'public interest test' in some specific circumstances, however the Scottish Government does not disclose the names of individuals who are below Senior Civil Service level or equivalent to below this level in the instance of private sector individuals. It is in the public interest to protect the personal information of junior civil servants and equivalent private sector actors and that is why the exception has been used.
Regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.
This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by a person, public authority, company or partnership 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 an open and transparent government is in the public interest, however, in this case, disclosure of some of the information that fell within the scope of your request could be expected to substantially prejudice the commercial interests of entities with whom the public sector is engaging following closure of the Grangemouth refinery and as part of the work of the Grangemouth Investor Taskforce. It is in the public interest to ensure that any private business feels able to safely and securely disclose commercially sensitive information with Scottish Ministers and officials, and this far outweighs the public interest in disclosure in this instance.
An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This regulation covers the withholding of internal communications by a Scottish public authority.
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 some public interest in release because of the interest in an open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in enabling the public sector to deal with complex challenges associated with Grangemouth’s transition which require a great deal of deliberation and due diligence before decisions are taken. Without an allowance for candour, officials will be less able to speak frankly and honestly about these options if there is a risk that external interested parties were to obtain the contents of these deliberations at a later date.
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. Regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.