Correspondence between the First Minister and Executive Committee of Petrofac: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
1. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the First Minister and the Executive Committee of Petrofac. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 3 November 2025 inclusive.
2. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and the Executive Committee of Petrofac. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 3 November 2025 inclusive.
3. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the First Minister and any Scottish Government official with a rank of deputy director or higher regarding Petrofac. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 3 November 2025 inclusive.
4. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and the Executive Committee of Petrofac and any Scottish Government official with a rank of deputy director or higher regarding Petrofac. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 3 November 2025 inclusive.
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.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under regulations:
- 10(4)(a) (information not held)
- 10(4)(e) (Internal Communications)
- 10(5)(e) Confidentiality of Commercial or Industrial Information) and
- 11(2) Personal data of a third party)
of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions have been applied 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.
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