Trips between Brussels and Edinburgh: EIR release

Information requested

1. How many return trips were made by Scottish Government delegates between Edinburgh and Brussels in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023?

2. How many return trips were made by delegates from Belgium for the purpose of attending / visiting Scottish Government affairs (meetings, briefings, conferences, events) in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023?

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. The answer to the first part of your question is as follows:

Calendar year	Number of return trips
2015	n/a
2016	168
2017	191
2018	212
2019	179
2023	12

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested in the first part of your question, and all of the information requested in the second part of your question, because exceptions under regulations 10(4)(a) and 10(4)(b) of the EIRs apply respectively to the information.

The first exemption applies because we do not hold information for the 2015 calendar year in a format that allows us to identify particular flights. The second exemption applies because the costs and resources involved in complying with your request would be disproportionate. To find the information requested, we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to the names of individuals, organisations, events held by the Scottish Government, or the dates on which those events were held. Because of the volume of records which would need to be searched, a 20 working days extension to the response deadline (under regulation 7 of the EIRs) would still not make the request manageable. For these reasons, we consider that this part of your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b).

As the second exception is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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 engagement with the Scottish Government and business travel more generally, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government and a more specific timeframe, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.