Heat in Buildings Bill information: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
You asked for "all minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, analysis, about the Heat in Buildings Bill held by the Scottish Government, between March 20 2025 and the date of this FOI".
Response
I enclose a copy of some of the information you 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.
An exception under regulation 10(4)(d), regulation 10(4)e, regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. We have redacted internal discussions, sections of documents concerning legislation other than that in the original query, sections of documents concerning policy in working or draft format, and sections of documents that contain sensitive financial information.
These exceptions are 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of the principle of open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that topics at preliminary stages of consideration benefit from an essential private space for discussion.
It is worth noting that a similar request for information was made under EIR202500461314, which has recently been published and can be found here: Heat in Buildings Bill correspondence: EIR release - gov.scot
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.
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