Orkney independence and Zero emission vessels: EIR release

Information requested

1. All briefings prepared for ministers about Orkney considering independence from Scotland and the UK between June 15 2023 and the date of this FOI.
2. All correspondence, including internal emails, sent and received by the Scottish Government regarding Orkney considering independence from Scotland, between June 15 2023 and the date of this FOI.
3. All correspondence, including internal emails, sent and received by the Scottish Government regarding Orkney being awarded more than £15m of funding from the UK government's Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure Fund between January 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.
4. All correspondence, including internal emails, sent and received by the Scottish Government about the UK government's Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure Fund, between January 1 2022 and the date of this FOI.

Response

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 to your request

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons for this is explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. In relation to your questions 1 and 2, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold this.

In relation to your questions 3 and 4, please find the attached redacted document with some of the information you have requested.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of third parties and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.

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 an exception under regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial information) of the EIRs that applies to that information.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs applies to some the information you have requested. Information about certain ongoing discussions contain a lot of highly commercial information, with much of the information considered being commercially sensitive.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of the case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of an open, transparent and accountable government to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, in this instance, and on balance, we consider that there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of Orkney Islands Council

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 202300376397 - Information Released - Document

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