Correspondence in relation to the potential exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme from the UK Internal Market Act since April 2021: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
- Under Freedom of Information legislation I would be grateful if I could receive a copy of all correspondence between the Scottish and UK Governments in relation to the potential exclusion for the Deposit Return Scheme from the UK Internal Market Act since April 2021.
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 have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.
On reviewing materials within scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.
In addition, the Scottish Government has published correspondence between Scottish Government and UK Government ministers on the Internal Market Act and I have include a link for your convenience: Internal Market Act: correspondence.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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