Correspondence regarding answer to Parliamentary Questions by Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
You asked for EIR 202500450327 to be re-answered and all redactions removed, stating that “the blanket application of section 10 of EIR to justify the redactions clearly did not meet the public interest test”.
Details of EIR 202500450327:
Your previous request asked for all internal Scottish Government correspondence, involving civil servants and/or special advisers, discussing the drafting of this answer provided by Gillian Martin to a written question asked in the Scottish Parliament:
https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers/question?ref=S6W-33595
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.
Following your request, EIR 202500450327 has been re-assessed and all the redactions have been checked to ensure that the public interest test is fully considered each time an exception has been applied.
I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested, which clearly shows which exception has been applied. As outlined in Annex A, exceptions have been applied and it is not possible to remove all redactions for the reasons outlined. In particular, it was found that there is no public interest in releasing draft documents that may be incomplete or contain incorrect information. It is also vital that officials are able to discuss draft ideas and share information when contributing to a final response.
Exemptions apply, not subject to the public interest test
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This regulation relates to the personal data relating to third parties.
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