EIR/202500452525 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Directorate For Energy And Climate Change meetings with Oil and Gas sector: EIR release
Information requested
During the time Humza Yousaf was First Minister, how many meetings did civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have with
1. Trade Unions that organise in the Oil and Gas sector 2. Companies with investments in Oil and Gas 3. Oil and Gas operators 4. Organisations representing Oil and Gas companies, including trade associations and public relations companies
A list of all these meetings, with dates attached.
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.
The request asks for official meetings that were held within the Former First Minister’s time in office, which we have taken as 29 March 2023 until 7 May 2024 (the date that the Former First Minister’s formal resignation took effect).
To ensure the information is relevant to the request, for part 1) we have interpreted the request to only include meetings between trade unions and civil servants in which oil and gas was discussed.
We have interpreted part 3) of your request as seeking information on meetings with offshore oil and gas operators within the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and onshore oil and gas operators within Scotland.
For consistency, part 2) and part 4) of your request have then been interpreted as being in relation to companies with investments in (in case of part 2) or organisations representing (in case of part 4) oil and gas operators within the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and onshore oil and gas operators within Scotland.
Bodies which are not oil and gas operators (or organisations representing such companies) were not included in the searches. This includes regulators, training bodies and supply chain companies.
As your request seeks information on meetings “had” by civil servants, meetings where officials attended in support of Ministers have not been considered as in scope.
In relation to part 2) of your request, Scottish Government officials do not routinely carry out checks on all aspects of a company investment profile ahead of any meeting. As such, we are only able to identify meetings which meet the criteria of this part of your request in cases where it was specifically known that the companies in question hold such investments. All of these instances were also captured by the searches undertaken for part 3) of your request, so we have supplied this information only once. Similarly, in instances where meetings meet the criteria for a combination of the parts of your request (for example, meetings with organisations representing oil and gas companies where trade unions were also present), this information has been supplied only once.
In relation to part 1) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 3 occasions with trade unions that organise in the oil and gas sector. The dates of these meetings are provided below:
08/08/2023 05/11/2023 04/04/2025
In relation to part 3) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 65 occasions with oil and gas operators. The dates of these meetings are provided below:
20/03/2023 10/07/2023 26/09/2023 28/11/2023 27/02/2024 03/04/2023 11/07/2023 26/09/2023 07/12/2023 27/02/2024 17/04/2023 24/07/2023 28/09/2023 11/12/2023 04/03/2024 01/05/2023 27/07/2023 02/10/2023 19/12/2023 08/03/2024 15/05/2023 07/08/2023 03/10/2023 08/01/2024 18/03/2024 16/05/2023 17/08/2023 16/10/2023 16/01/2024 02/04/2024 29/05/2023 21/08/2023 17/10/2023 22/01/2024 09/04/2024 12/06/2023 31/08/2023 20/10/2023 25/01/2024 10/04/2024 23/06/2023 04/09/2023 24/10/2023 30/01/2024 16/04/2024 26/06/2023 11/09/2023 30/10/2023 05/02/2024 17/04/2024 26/06/2023 13/09/2023 07/11/2023 19/02/2024 23/04/2024 30/06/2023 18/09/2023 13/11/2023 21/02/2024 30/04/2024 03/07/2023 21/09/2023 27/11/2023 23/02/2024 02/05/2024
In relation to part 4) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 84 occasions with organisations representing oil and gas operators, this includes meeting with 5 meetings where trade unions were also present. The dates of these meetings are provided below:
29/03/2023 19/07/2023 05/10/2023 07/12/2023 29/02/2024 29/03/2023 20/07/2023 10/10/2023 07/12/2023 05/03/2024 04/04/2023 26/07/2023 12/10/2023 19/12/2023 07/03/2024 13/04/2023 01/08/2023 24/10/2023 19/12/2023 12/03/2024 24/04/2023 03/08/2023 24/10/2023 16/01/2024 26/03/2024 25/04/2023 08/08/2023 25/10/2023 23/01/2024 26/03/2024 27/04/2023 15/08/2023 31/10/2023 30/01/2024 27/03/2024 30/05/2023 15/08/2023 03/11/2023 30/01/2024 04/04/2024 31/05/2023 29/08/2023 07/11/2023 30/01/2024 09/04/2024 08/06/2023 12/09/2023 07/11/2023 01/02/2024 11/04/2024 12/06/2023 13/09/2023 07/11/2023 06/02/2024 16/04/2024 20/06/2023 19/09/2023 09/11/2023 13/02/2024 19/04/2024 22/06/2023 26/09/2023 21/11/2023 20/02/2024 22/04/2024 29/06/2023 26/09/2023 28/11/2023 27/02/2024 23/04/2024 30/06/2023 26/09/2023 29/11/2023 27/02/2024 23/04/2024 04/07/2023 26/09/2023 05/12/2023 27/02/2024 30/04/2024 06/07/2023 29/09/2023 05/12/2023 28/02/2024
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Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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.
Attachments
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