Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group: EIR release

Information requested

1. “What was the date of formation of the Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group?”

2. “Who is a member of this group?”

3. “What is the cost to the Scottish Government of operating this group from the date of formation to 4/10/23?”

4. “Are any members of this group renumerated, if so what for?”

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 exception 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 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, 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.

Question 1
The Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group first met on 22 May 2023.

Question 2
The Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group consists of staff from the Scottish Government, retailers, producers and numerous trade bodies. I have provided details of these below for your convenience:

• Kevin Quinlan, SRO of Deposit Return Scheme, Scottish Government
• David McPhee, Deputy Director Scottish Government
• AG Barr plc
• Amazon
• British Soft Drinks
• CoSLA
• Molson Coors
• One Retail Group
• Scottish Beer and Pub Association
• Scottish Grocers’ Federation
• Scottish Hospitality Group
• Scottish Licensed Trade Association
• Scottish Retail Consortium
• Scottish Wholesale Association
• SEPA
• Society of Independent Brewers
• Tesco Stores Limited
• UK Hospitality
• Wine and Spirit Trade Association
• Zero Waste Scotland
• Natural Source Water Association
• Federation of Independent Retailers

Question 3
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested as the only costs associated with the Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group has been staff time.

It may help if I explain that Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by Civil Servants involved with the Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 4
No remuneration is provided to the members of the Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group as part of their role in the group.

It may help if I explain that the Scottish Government does not provide any remuneration to external members of the Deposit Return Scheme Ministerial Strategic Assurance Group. Additionally, the Scottish Government does not remunerate staff members in any way for participation in the group over and above standard staff salaries.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

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.