Cost breakdown of Minister for Business and Employment's trade mission trip: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
1. Could you supply a full breakdown of the costs from Richard Lochhead's trade mission to Singapore and Malaysia in October 2024, including a breakdown of his expenses, and how many officials went with him and a breakdown of their expenses?
2. Could you supply all documentation held by the government relating to this trip, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, analysis of whether it was value for money?
3. Could you supply all documentation held by the government relating to this trip, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, analysis, about slavery reparations, from the last three months?
Response
In response to your request I can provide some of the information you requested for questions 1 and 2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in response to question 3.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, 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 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.
An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is likely to prejudice substantially the commercial interests of the parties. This exemption applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of the commercial entities involved. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking into 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release to ensure full transparency. However, this is outweighed by the public interest as there is a risk to the companies’ commercial interests.
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Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG