Ferguson Marine and the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise: FOI review

Information requested

1. All briefings, correspondence, emails, letters, notes of meetings and telephone conversations, between 25 July 2022 and 5 October 2022 between Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd and the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise regarding the delivery and costs for vessels 801 and 802.
2. Please provide the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise’s briefing and speaking notes for the Topical Question he answered in the Scottish Parliament chamber on 6 September 2022

 

Response

In accordance with section 21(4) of FOISA, I have also reached a decision on your request. I apologise for the delay in responding to your request due to the document reviewing process taking longer than expected. I can now provide our response to your original request.

1. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. There is no material between 25 July 2022 and 5 October 2022 within scope of your request.

Therefore, this is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information that you have requested.

2. I enclose a redacted copy of the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise’s briefing for the Topical Question he answered in the Scottish Parliament chamber on 6 September 2022.

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 the Ministers briefing for the Parliamentary question contained a copy of the First Ministers briefing for First Ministers questions on 8 September 2022.

Exemptions under section 30(b)(i) (free and frank provision of advice and free and frank exchange of views) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 apply to that information.

These exemptions apply because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The exemptions recognise the need for Ministers to have a private space within which to seek advice and views from officials before reaching the settled public position which will be given in whatever final Parliamentary answer Ministers then give.

Disclosing the content of free and frank briefing material provided to First Minister for First Ministers questions would substantially inhibit such briefing in the future, particularly because the provision of advice and discussions on issues are still ongoing and final decisions may have not been taken, and these discussions relate to often fluid, evolving and sensitive issues such as those raised at First Minsters Questions.

Some of the information you have requested is withheld under section 25 of the Act, which exempts information from disclosure where the information is otherwise accessible. Part of the Ministers briefing contained a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy to all MSPs which can be found on the Scottish Government website – Ferguson Marine: costs associated with the completion of vessels 801 and 802 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

I would refer you to the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament for the day in question, which is the formal record of the information provided by the First Minister and where some of the information is otherwise accessible.

The First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s position during FMQs on 8 September 2022 and can be accessed on the Official Report (parliament.scot). The relevant section is titled “Ferries Procurement” on page 10.

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.

FOI Review - 202200332412 - information released - Annex A

File type

1 page PDF

File size

101.1 kB

FOI Review - 202200332412 - information released - Annex B

File type

26 page PDF

File size

316.5 kB