Directorate For Energy And Climate Change meetings with Oil and Gas sector: EIR release

Information requested

During the time Humza Yousaf was First Minister, how many meetings did civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have with

1. Trade Unions that organise in the Oil and Gas sector
2. Companies with investments in Oil and Gas
3. Oil and Gas operators
4. Organisations representing Oil and Gas companies, including trade associations and public relations companies

A list of all these meetings, with dates attached.

 

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.

The request asks for official meetings that were held within the Former First Minister’s time in office, which we have taken as 29 March 2023 until 7 May 2024 (the date that the Former First Minister’s formal resignation took effect).

To ensure the information is relevant to the request, for part 1) we have interpreted the request to only include meetings between trade unions and civil servants in which oil and gas was discussed.

We have interpreted part 3) of your request as seeking information on meetings with offshore oil and gas operators within the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and onshore oil and gas operators within Scotland.

For consistency, part 2) and part 4) of your request have then been interpreted as being in relation to companies with investments in (in case of part 2) or organisations representing (in case of part 4) oil and gas operators within the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and onshore oil and gas operators within Scotland.

Bodies which are not oil and gas operators (or organisations representing such companies) were not included in the searches. This includes regulators, training bodies and supply chain companies.

As your request seeks information on meetings “had” by civil servants, meetings where officials attended in support of Ministers have not been considered as in scope.

In relation to part 2) of your request, Scottish Government officials do not routinely carry out checks on all aspects of a company investment profile ahead of any meeting. As such, we are only able to identify meetings which meet the criteria of this part of your request in cases where it was specifically known that the companies in question hold such investments. All of these instances were also captured by the searches undertaken for part 3) of your request, so we have supplied this information only once. Similarly, in instances where meetings meet the criteria for a combination of the parts of your request (for example, meetings with organisations representing oil and gas companies where trade unions were also present), this information has been supplied only once.

In relation to part 1) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 3 occasions with trade unions that organise in the oil and gas sector. The dates of these meetings are provided below:

08/08/2023

05/11/2023

04/04/2025

In relation to part 3) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 65 occasions with oil and gas operators. The dates of these meetings are provided below:

20/03/2023	10/07/2023	26/09/2023	28/11/2023	27/02/2024
03/04/2023	11/07/2023	26/09/2023	07/12/2023	27/02/2024
17/04/2023	24/07/2023	28/09/2023	11/12/2023	04/03/2024
01/05/2023	27/07/2023	02/10/2023	19/12/2023	08/03/2024
15/05/2023	07/08/2023	03/10/2023	08/01/2024	18/03/2024
16/05/2023	17/08/2023	16/10/2023	16/01/2024	02/04/2024
29/05/2023	21/08/2023	17/10/2023	22/01/2024	09/04/2024
12/06/2023	31/08/2023	20/10/2023	25/01/2024	10/04/2024
23/06/2023	04/09/2023	24/10/2023	30/01/2024	16/04/2024
26/06/2023	11/09/2023	30/10/2023	05/02/2024	17/04/2024
26/06/2023	13/09/2023	07/11/2023	19/02/2024	23/04/2024
30/06/2023	18/09/2023	13/11/2023	21/02/2024	30/04/2024
03/07/2023	21/09/2023	27/11/2023	23/02/2024	02/05/2024

In relation to part 4) of your request, civil servants within the Energy and Climate Change Directorate have, between 29 March 2023 and 7 May 2024, met on 84 occasions with organisations representing oil and gas operators, this includes meeting with 5 meetings where trade unions were also present. The dates of these meetings are provided below:

29/03/2023	19/07/2023	05/10/2023	07/12/2023	29/02/2024
29/03/2023	20/07/2023	10/10/2023	07/12/2023	05/03/2024
04/04/2023	26/07/2023	12/10/2023	19/12/2023	07/03/2024
13/04/2023	01/08/2023	24/10/2023	19/12/2023	12/03/2024
24/04/2023	03/08/2023	24/10/2023	16/01/2024	26/03/2024
25/04/2023	08/08/2023	25/10/2023	23/01/2024	26/03/2024
27/04/2023	15/08/2023	31/10/2023	30/01/2024	27/03/2024
30/05/2023	15/08/2023	03/11/2023	30/01/2024	04/04/2024
31/05/2023	29/08/2023	07/11/2023	30/01/2024	09/04/2024
08/06/2023	12/09/2023	07/11/2023	01/02/2024	11/04/2024
12/06/2023	13/09/2023	07/11/2023	06/02/2024	16/04/2024
20/06/2023	19/09/2023	09/11/2023	13/02/2024	19/04/2024
22/06/2023	26/09/2023	21/11/2023	20/02/2024	22/04/2024
29/06/2023	26/09/2023	28/11/2023	27/02/2024	23/04/2024
30/06/2023	26/09/2023	29/11/2023	27/02/2024	23/04/2024
04/07/2023	26/09/2023	05/12/2023	27/02/2024	30/04/2024
06/07/2023	29/09/2023	05/12/2023	28/02/2024

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