FOI/202500496792 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence from Oil and Gas organisations regarding engagement with Scottish Government: EIR release
Information requested
“All correspondence received by the Scottish Government from oil and gas organisations, trade bodies, or companies since 1 January 2022 referencing: lack of Scottish Government engagement, cancelled or rearranged meetings, or unanswered correspondence. Please include emails, letters, meeting requests, and briefing notes’.”
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.
Request for copies of correspondence received by the Scottish Government from oil and gas organisations, trade bodies, or companies since 1 January 2022.
I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.
On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, an exception has been applied in line with the EIRs. The exception applied can be found in Annex A.
Please note that for the purposes of your request we have conducted searches for information between the dates of 1 January 2022 and 3 December 2025.
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.