EIR/202400427822 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA): EIR release
Information requested
- All briefings and information relating to meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy and SEPA officials from 1 September 2023 onwards.
- All minutes relating to the aforementioned meetings.
- All emails relating to the aforementioned meetings including those received from external parties.
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.
There have been two meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Màiri McAllan, and SEPA officials within the timescale specified in your request (1 September 2023 to the date of your request on 22 August 2024) on the following dates:
Wednesday 28 February 2024 Thursday 13 June 2024
I have included copies of the information you have requested in 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 Annex A.
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.