Communications with the nine newly appointed HM Trade Commissioners since their respective appointments: FOI release

You asked for :

Any correspondence or details of meetings between Scottish Ministers or Scottish Government officials and any of the nine newly appointed HM Trade Commissioners since their respective appointments.

I have enclosed copies of documentation that are within the scope of your request and constitute direct correspondence or details of meetings between HM Trade Commissioners and Scottish Government officials and/or Scottish Ministers. 

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. I have redacted names of individuals.  Disclosing these details 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 exemption 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 exemption.

To supplement the response I’ve provided a table (see below) with a basic outline of engagements where documentation does not exist, documentation is not owned or held by Scottish Government or documentation held does not meet the scope of your request. This details events or meetings where Scottish Government officials or Scottish Ministers have been in attendance but not necessarily a direct meeting with the Trade Commissioner.