FOI/202300381935 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Minister for Energy attendance at the Floating Offshore Wind conference in Aberdeen in October 2023: EIR release
Information requested
All briefing documents prepared in advance of Gillian Martin’s attendance at the Floating Offshore Wind conference in Aberdeen in October 2023, and all transcripts/minutes/notes of speeches/meetings/panels which Gillian Martin participated in during the conference.
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.
Response to your request I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. This includes the briefing document provided to the Minister for the Floating Offshore Wind Conference 2023 engagement, a copy of the speaking note provided to the Minister, and a note of the engagement. The Minister did not take part in any further meetings or panels at this conference, and no transcripts were produced.
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:
an exception under regulation 11(2) personal data of a third party of the EIRs applies to that information. an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) internal communications of the EIRs applies to that information.
An exception applies
An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. The exception applies to pages 5 – 9 of document 2 (briefing) because it is advice to Ministers.
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 the information relates to policy that may impact on the environment and may enhance scrutiny and improve participation. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in not disclosing internal communications regarding policy advice which allows sufficient internal deliberation and decision-making processes.
A further exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
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. an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) internal communications of the EIRs applies to that information.