Correspondence concerning National Treatment centre Inverness: EIR review

Information requested

All briefings, correspondence, emails, letters, notes of meetings and telephone conversations, since 1 September 2021 between Scottish Government Ministers/Officials/Special Advisors and NHS Highland concerning the completion date and operational date of the National Treatment Centre, Inverness.

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

In accordance with regulation 16(3)(b) of the EIRs, I have also reached a decision on your request.

I wish to apologise for the delay in the response to the initial enquiry. This resulted from the time taken to establish if third party consultants working on behalf of the Health Board were within the scope of this enquiry. Once it was established that they were documentation from them was included.

I can now provide our response to your original request.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government holds information falling within the scope of your request. All information held that is in scope, with the exception of exempt material, is attached in the Annex to this letter. A summary of the disclosed documents included in this response are as follows:

1. Extract of NTCP Draft Note of Programme board meeting 22 September 2021
2. Extract of NTC Highland Lead Advisor Dashboard Report No 5. October 2021
3. Extract of NTC Highland Project stocktake for October 2021
4. Extract of NTC Highland – Lead Advisor Dashboard report No.6 November 2021
5. Extract of NTC Highland – Project Board 25 Minutes of Meeting 21 October 2021
6. Extract of NTCP – Governance - Programme Board notes 18 November 2021
7. Extract of NTC Highland Project Board 44 Minutes of Minutes DRAFT 18.11.21
8. Extract of A1 NTC Highland Project Board 44 Construction Cost report December 2021
9. Extract of NTC Highland Project Board 44 - LA Dashboard Report No.7 Jan 2022
10. Extract of NTC - Highland Equipping project Plan 02 February 2022
11. Extracts from Balfour Beatty Construction reports from October 2021 November 2021 December 2021 February 2022. Balfour Beatty Contractor's report.

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 exemptions under Regulation 11 (2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to that information, and under Regulation 10(5)(f) – substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information.

I attach a copy of most of the information you requested in the Annex.

Regulation 11(2) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party

An 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.

Additionally, some information contained within the attached documents has been removed as the information is out of the scope of your request.

Regulation 10(5)(f) – substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information

An exception under regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of NHS Highland who provided that information to the Scottish Government. They: · were not under any legal obligation to give us that information; · did not supply it in circumstances in which it could, apart from the EIRs, be made available; and · have not consented to disclosure. 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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the interests of anyone, such as NHS Highland who provides the Scottish Government with information on a confidential basis. Disclosing such information against the express wishes of the stakeholder is likely to undermine their trust in the Government and make them reluctant in future to share information with us on issues such as Project Progression. This would significantly impair the Scottish Government’s ability to develop policies and make decisions on the basis of fully informed advice and evidence. This would not be in the public interest.

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.

EIR - 202200291872 - information released - Annex

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13 page PDF

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2.9 MB