First Minister and Deputy First Minister offshore renewable investor discussions: EIR release

Information requested

During the Q&A session after his speech in Glasgow on 19th February 2025, the First Minister said that he and the Deputy First Minister were “involved in discussions just yesterday with a whole range of offshore renewable investors".

Please provide all documentation associated with these discussions, including agendas, briefing documents, notes/minutes, and a full list of participants.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, 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.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) applies to some of the information you have requested. Regulation 10(5)(e) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows authorities to withhold information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by law to protect a legitimate economic interest.

The exception under Regulation 10(5)(e) is subject to the public interest test. We have carefully considered whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. After weighing all the circumstances, we have concluded that, on balance, the public interest favours upholding the exception. While we acknowledge the public interest in transparency, particularly regarding matters that could affect environmental or public policy decisions, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting commercially sensitive information. Disclosure of the information could harm legitimate economic interests, weaken the competitive position of the involved parties, and result in financial loss or reputational damage.

Furthermore, an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have 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.

Additionally, an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception allows a Scottish public authority to withhold internal communications. The reason for applying this exemption is to protect information that is in draft format. This exception is subject to the public interest test. We have carefully considered whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. After weighing all the circumstances, we have concluded that, on balance, the public interest favours upholding the exception. While we acknowledge the public interest in transparency, particularly regarding matters that could affect environmental or public policy decisions. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that the final version of advice is released to avoid misleading the public.

This request has been interpreted as a request for documentation and email correspondence has not been included. Some documents identified for release also contain information that is out of the scope of your request. This information has been redacted from the documents where appropriate.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500453644 - Information released - Documents

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