Oil and gas industry documentation: EIR release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about job losses in the oil and gas industry, from the last month?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about offshore energy investments, from the last month?

3. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about GB Energy, from the last month?

4. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about Rosebank oil field development, from the last month?

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.

1. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about job losses in the oil and gas industry, from the last month?

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 an exception(s) under regulation(s) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception(s) applies are explained below.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs (information already publicly available), we do not have to provide you information which is already publicly available.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between Scottish Government Ministers and officials. This exception 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 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 as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide free and frank advice and views to Ministers.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’ and, taking account 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. The information withheld relates to confidential workforce notifications. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by the third party and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests.

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. The Scottish Government’s general approach is to release the names of officials at Senior Civil Service level and above, including Special Advisers and Ministers, and to only withhold the names of officials below Senior Civil Service level. This approach has been taken in the redaction of personal information within the information requested.

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about offshore energy investments, from the last month?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at: BriefingRegulation104bManifestlyUnreasonableRequests.pdf says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”. In this case, due to the high number of e-mails identified as potentially in scope, even a 20 working days extension to the response deadline (under regulation 7 of the EIRs) would still not make the request manageable.

For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b). As the exception is conditional we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about offshore energy investments, from the last month, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

Based on the criteria you provided, a very large number of items were identified as in scope of your request. You may wish to consider asking about specific offshore energies or specific offshore energy investments. You may also wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable. For example, you could restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, or a specific offshore energy technology type, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. Please note that submitting multiple separate requests at the same time, even if split into separate emails, is still likely to be unmanageable.

3. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about GB Energy, from the last month?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at: BriefingRegulation104bManifestlyUnreasonableRequests.pdf says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”. In this case, due to the high number of e-mails identified as potentially in scope, even a 20 working days extension to the response deadline (under regulation 7 of the EIRs) would still not make the request manageable.

For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b). As the exception is conditional we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about GB Energy, from the last month, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

Based on the criteria you provided, a very large number of items were identified as in scope of your request. You may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable. For example, you may wish to consider asking about engagement with GB Energy on a specific matter. Please note that submitting multiple separate requests at the same time, even if split into separate emails, is still likely to be unmanageable.

4. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including minutes/notes from meetings, correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings and analysis, about Rosebank oil field development, from the last month?

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs (information already publicly available), we do not have to provide you information which is already publicly available.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between Scottish Government Ministers and officials. This exception 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 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 as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide free and frank advice and views to Ministers.

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. The Scottish Government’s general approach is to release the names of officials at Senior Civil Service level and above, including Special Advisers and Ministers, and to only withhold the names of officials below Senior Civil Service level. This approach has been taken in the redaction of personal information within the information requested.

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.

FOI 202500493600 - Information Released - Documents

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