Meetings between Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and multiple companies: EIR release

Information requested

1. The dates, times and locations of all meetings and talks held between Ms. Gillian Martin, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy between 1st May, 2023 to the present date and each of the following companies:

• SSEN Transmission
• Had Fab Ltd.
• Murphy Transmission and Distribution Ltd.
• Wood Transmission and Distribution Ltd.

2. This should include the names and roles of all attendees at each meeting, including company representatives and all government officials.

3. Also, availability of all formal minutes or notes taken at each meeting both in-person and virtual.

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.

I have enclosed a copy of some of the information you requested in Annex B.

Some of the information you have requested is available from Meetings between the Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work and SSEN: EIR release - gov.scot and Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy meetings and minutes with SSEN: EIR release - gov.scot. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulations 10(4)(a) and 11(2) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to 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 202500482606 - Information Released - Annex A and B

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