Scottish Government officials meetings with representatives of True North (Scotland) Ltd: EIR release

Information requested

1. The number of times Scottish Government officials have met with representatives of True North (Scotland) Ltd since 2020, broken down by the dates of said meetings.
2. The number of times the Scottish Ministers have met with representatives of True North (Scotland) Ltd since 2020, broken down by the name of each Minister involved, and the dates of said meetings.
3. The number of contracts signed between the Scottish Government and True North (Scotland) Ltd, and the nature of each contract, since 2020.
4. The value of each contract signed between the Scottish Government and True North (Scotland) Ltd, since 2020.
5. Whether the Scottish Government has ever paid money to True North (Scotland) Ltd for any reason, and if so, a breakdown of each payment and the nature of each payment, since 2020.

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

The answer to each of your questions in turn is:

1) The number of times Scottish Government officials have met with representatives of True North (Scotland) Ltd since 2020, broken down by the dates of said meetings.

• Wednesday 3rd May 2023
• Wednesday 10th May 2023 (supporting at event below)
• Wednesday 6th September 2023
• Thursday 7th September 2023 (supporting at event below)

2) The number of times the Scottish Ministers have met with representatives of True North (Scotland) Ltd since 2020, broken down by the name of each Minister involved, and the dates of said meetings.

Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy - Wednesday 10 May 2023

First Minister - Thursday 07 September 2023

3) The number of contracts signed between the Scottish Government and True North (Scotland) Ltd, and the nature of each contract, since 2020.

- NIL

4) The value of each contract signed between the Scottish Government and True North (Scotland) Ltd, since 2020.

- N/A

5) Whether the Scottish Government has ever paid money to True North (Scotland) Ltd for any reason, and if so, a breakdown of each payment and the nature of each payment, since 2020.

- Scottish Government has no record of paying money to True North (Scotland) Ltd.

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.