Correspondence to Energy Minister that mention “oil and gas”, and/ or “fossil fuels”: EIR release

Information requested

Any correspondence from members of the public to the current Energy Minister from 1/1/2020- to current which mentions “oil and gas”, and/ or “fossil fuels.

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.

I enclose a copy of the information you 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 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. This information has been redacted in the enclosed attachment.

The current Minister for Energy and Environment, Gillian Martin MSP, came into post in March 2023. Therefore, searches have been undertaken from 01 March 2023 until the date of your request, the 27 September 2023. The Scottish Government generally handles correspondence that has been sent to Ms Martin in her capacity as Minister for the Energy and Environment. Correspondence from members of the public to Ms Martin in her capacity as an MSP will generally be handled by her constituency office. Therefore, you may also wish to contact Gillian Martin MSP's constituency office at gillian.martin.msp@parliament.scot who may be able to help you further.

You may also be interested in the recently published analysis on the Scottish Government's Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan public consultation.

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 202300378270 - Information Released - Email

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