Communications between Scottish Government and Tata Steel: FOI Review
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
A copy of all communications sent or received, and minutes of Scottish Government discussions with (a) Tata Steel UK and (b) Liberty Steel or the GFG Alliance over the last 12 months in regards to the 2016 purchase/sale agreement of the Dalzell steelworks.
Response
I have now completed my review of our failure to respond to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) which asked for:
A copy of all communications sent or received, and minutes of Scottish Government discussions with (a) Tata Steel UK and (b) Liberty Steel or the GFG Alliance over the last 12 months in regards to the 2016 purchase/sale agreement of the Dalzell steelworks.
In accordance with section 21(4) of FOISA, I have also reached a decision on your request.
I can now provide our response to your original request. 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 exemptions under section 28(1) (Relations within the UK), section 30(c) (Substantial Prejudice to Effective Conduct of Public Affairs), section 33(1)(b) (Commercial Interests and the Economy), section 36(1) (Legal Advice) and section 38(1)(b) (Personal Data) of FOISA applies to that information.
Some of these exemptions are 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 exemptions. Further details of the public interest tests applied to each of these exemptions can be found in the annex of this letter.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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