Emails relating to Biffa vs Scottish Ministers case: EIR release

Information requested

‘I am trying to find a copy of some emails which were submitted to the Court of Session as part of the Biffa vs Scottish ministers case (COS CA30-24). We have not been given access to the productions but were told that a lot of correspondence had come out under FOI already, but I couldn’t find this one on the publications page. What I am looking for is the email correspondence dated 6 May 2022 between civil servants Haydn Thomas, Charles Holmes and Ginny Gardner, and Jamie Delap of Fyne Ales. They were discussing the deposit return scheme and specifically the system wide assurance group and the shared risk register. I am hoping you are able to relatively easily find the correspondence which was submitted to the court, but if not it would be any email chains between those three civil servants on that date.’

You clarified your request on 30 October 2025, providing the further details below:

‘I wanted to clarify a date, I think I stated the correspondence was sent on 6 May, on closer examination of court records I believe it might actually have been 4 April. I can actually narrow it down even further if it helps in terms of what production it was in court - it was in the fourth inventory of productions, page 2425.’

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 included copies of the information you have requested below in Annex B.

On reviewing materials within scope of your request an exception has been applied in line with the EIRs.

You can find information on the exceptions that have been applied to information below in Annex A.

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 202500491202 - Information released - Annex A & Annex B

File type

PDF

File size

181.7 kB