Carbon Neutral Islands Project: EIR release

Information requested

• The Scottish Government tender or briefing documents that were created and provided to applicants, who were in competition to carry out the net zero skills gap and sector analysis research, which is being undertaken in relation to the Carbon Neutral Islands Project.
• The proposals that were provided by contractors/organisations to the Scottish Government in relation to the previously mentioned work on the Carbon Neutral Islands Project.
• The number of bids that were received by the Scottish Government for this contract to carry out the previously mentioned work on the Carbon Neutral Islands Project.
• Any project plans that were received by the Scottish Government from the organisation who received the contract to carry out the previously mentioned work on the Carbon Neutral Islands Project.

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

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. The answer to your question on the number of bids received by the Scottish Government to carry our this research is 4.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some the information you have requested because an exception(s) under regulation(s) 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

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.

Annex A-B - 202300340321

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7 page PDF

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231.1 kB