Tobacco industry contact with the Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

A list of any and all contact your organisation and/or staff have had with British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International, as well as any other domestic or transnational tobacco companies or anyone representing the tobacco industry including subsidiaries of tobacco industry for the period from 23 April 2023 - 10 March 2025

Contact would primarily include attending or arranging meetings or functions, and responding to correspondence or phone calls.

Please break down the information by:
• Tobacco company or representative’s name
• Date of contact(s)
• Type of contact (meeting, email, letter, phone call, text/app message or video call, e-card or any other form of electronic communication)
• Place of contact, if relevant
• Purpose of contact
• Outcome of contact, including if no action taken

Response

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 exemption Section 25 (information otherwise accessible) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter. Please find enclosed the information in scope of your request:

202500457370 - Table of Documents

1	Letter to Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health Jenni Minto from Philip Morris Ltd
2	Reply from Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health Jenni Minto to Philip Morris Ltd

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exemption applies

Section 25 - Information otherwise accessible

An exemption(s) under section(s) 25 of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. Correspondence between Imperial Brands and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have already been released in a previous FOI in November 2024 and are publicly available. The information can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400425499/

This exemption 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 exemption.

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.

FOI 202500457370 - Information released - Documents

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