Programme of Engagement with Business Organisations meeting: FOI release

Information requested

Details of the following meeting attended by Minister Jamie Hepburn and Professor Iain Docherty on the 5 September 2020. Details being sought include:

• Pre meeting briefing(s)
• Agenda
• Venue and list of attendees
• Minutes or notes from meeting
• Post meeting action points

Response

The meeting between Mr Hepburn and Professor Docherty took place on Friday 4 September as part of a series of engagements around the Scottish Government's response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery's recommendations. The discussion included a general exchange on the economic impacts of the Covid pandemic and then focused on Prof Docherty's participation in the Productivity Insights Network, a multi-disciplinary group of academic researchers with whom Scottish Government officials are working closely.

The meeting was conducted by conference call and involved Mr Hepburn, Professor Docherty and Stephen Boyd, an official then working in the Economic Policy and Capability Division of the Scottish Government. The pre-meeting briefing is attached as requested. There was no formal agenda and, given the wide ranging and informal nature of the call, no minutes were recorded nor were any action points taken.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie the contact details of individuals, and disclosing it 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.

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FOI - 202100228802 - Information released

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12 page PDF

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