John Swinney MSP meeting notes with various parties relating to A9 dualling: EIR release

Information requested

Any meeting notes from engagements between John Swinney MSP and Transport Scotland between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

Any meeting notes from engagements between John Swinney MSP and community groups concerned about the A9 between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

Any emails between John Swinney MSP and the below MSPS and MP in relation to the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

1. Fergus Ewing MSP
2. Jim Fairlie MSP
3. Richard Lochhead MSP
4. Liam McArthur MSP
5. Edward Mountain MSP
6. Richard Thomson MP

Response

Thank you for your email dated 23 February 2023. 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.

Response:

Any meeting notes from engagements between John Swinney MSP and Transport Scotland between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

Please refer to Annex A.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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 exception 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 exception.

Any meeting notes from engagements between John Swinney MSP and community groups concerned about the A9 between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

Any emails between John Swinney MSP and the below MSPS and MP in relation to the A9 dualling between 1 December 2023 and 23 February 2023.

1. Fergus Ewing MSP
2. Jim Fairlie MSP
3. Richard Lochhead MSP
4. Liam McArthur MSP
5. Edward Mountain MSP
6. Richard Thomson MP

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request as an exception of the EIRs applies under regulation 10(4)(a).

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), Transport Scotland is not required to provide information which it does not have.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise there may be some public interest in John Swinney MSP engagements with community groups and correspondence with the above names MSPs/MPs we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.

FOI 202300344769 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

7 page PDF

File size

187.2 kB