Meeting with CEO of Mowi ASA: EIR release

Information requested

Any pre-meeting briefing provided to then Minister Fergus Ewing prior to his meeting with Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim on the 26th November 2019. Can you also please provide a list of all attendees and the agenda for the meeting.

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 the response.

Response to your request
From our records, I can confirm that the meeting was attended by Fergus Ewing MSP, Ivan Vindheim (CEO MOWI ASA), Kate Higgins (Scottish Government) , and members of the MOWI Global Board (individual names of the board were not listed).

Our aim is to provide information wherever possible. However, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold all the information you requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exceptions at regulation 10(4) (a) of the EIRs. The reasons why this exception applies is explained in Annex A below.

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
ANNEX A

Regulation 10(4) (a) - information not held
Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not hold.

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 that there may be some public interest in information about a meeting between Mr Ewing and Ivan Vindheim, clearly 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.