Publication - FOI/EIR release

Development of a soft drinks deposit return scheme: EIR release

Published: 6 April 2018
Directorate: Environment and Forestry Directorate
Part of: Environment and climate change, Public sector

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

FOI reference: FOI/18/00683
Date received: 2 March 2018
Date responded: 27 March 2018

Information requested

Correspondence relating to the development of a soft drinks deposit return scheme from October 2016 to September 2017 between the Scottish government and the following companies and organisations:

The British Soft Drinks Association
The Association of Convenience Stores
Incpen
The British Retail Consortium
The Foodservice Packaging Association
Coca-Cola

By correspondence you meant emails, letters, briefing notes, invitations. You also requested to receive details of any meetings with the above groups and organisations on the topic of deposit return schemes in the same timeframe. Details of meetings included invitations, agendas, briefing notes, slides and handouts, and follow-up correspondence.

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.

Where available I enclose below the information you requested.

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