Grangemouth Oil Refinery closure information: EIR release

Information requested

1. The date on which the Scottish Government was first informed about the Petroineos closure of the Grangemouth Oil Refinery.

2. A copy of the communication (letter or email) that informed the Scottish Government about the closure.

3. A copy of the reply from the Scottish Government that acknowledged the news of the closure.

4. In request 1 I have asked about when the Scottish Government was first informed about the closure. I am also interested to know if, before the decision was final, the Scottish Government was told the decision could potentially be taken.

Therefore please reveal any correspondence received by the Scottish Government from Petroineos or other relevant body, before the final decision was taken, that includes the notice that the closure of Grangemouth refinery was possible.

Please include any reply from the Scottish Government.

5. The date on which the Scottish Government first became aware that the Grangemouth refinery could possibly/potentially close.

6. A copy of the correspondence or notice that was used to inform the wider Scottish Government about the closure of the Grangemouth Refinery.

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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under regulations 11(2) (third party personal data); 10(5)(e) (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information); and 10(5)(a) (substantial prejudice to international relations, defence, national security or public safety) of the EIRs apply to some of the information enclosed in the minute I am releasing as part of this request. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in Annex A of this letter.

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 202500457101 - Information Released - Annex A

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