Information on loan to Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd: FOI review

FOI reference: FOI/18/02035 Review
Date received: 16 August 2018  
Date responded: 12 September 2018

 

Response
 

Further to my email of 20 August 2018, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

1: the exact amount the Scottish government loaned to "Fergusons Marine" announced in June 2018;
2: the interest rate of that loan;
3: the terms and condition of the loan;
4: the information that would include what the money was ring fenced for? It was described as diversification funding; and
5: what is diversification classed as in the terms and conditions.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with modification.

I noted that there was an administrative error in the response email that accompanied the original decision which contained an incorrect date for receipt of your original FOI request it referenced the correct FOI but incorrect receipt date of 30 June 2018. The receipt date was correctly referenced on the accompanying letter of decision as 17 July 2018. The holding response and final decision which you received was actually issued outside the statutory deadline for reply. I apologise for these errors and have concluded that they do not change the substance of the reply.

I have reviewed the decision issued to you on 16 August 2018 including the exemption under section 33 (1(b)) of FOISA applied to some of the information you requested and have concluded that this exemption should not apply to all of the terms and conditions of the loan facility and accordingly an updated response together with a copy of the loan terms and conditions with information that is still commercially confidential and exempt under section 33 (1(b)) redacted as it could cause substantial prejudice to commercial interests at this time is below.

 

I have reviewed the balance of public interest afresh and considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. On balance I have concluded that the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption only on the information redacted.

 

Disclosure of the redacted information contained within the terms and conditions of the loan facility could substantially prejudice the commercial interests of FMEL and its future operations at this time.

 

About FOI
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