Correspondence between Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and her advisors regarding ExxonMobil's plant at Mossmorran: EIR release

Information requested

• “Please provide all correspondence between Gillian Martin and her advisors regarding ExxonMobil's plant at Mossmorran prior to the announcement on 18 November that the plant would close.’

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.

Response to 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 an exception(s) under regulation(s) Section 10(4)e (internal communications), Section 10(5)3 (Intellectual property rights), and Section 11 (Personal Data) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Annex - Reason for not providing information

Exceptions apply

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) and regulation 10(5)3 of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Scottish Government officials and Special Advisors regarding the announcement about Mossmorran. These exceptions allows for internal communications to be withheld as release would otherwise prejudice substantially, or be likely to prejudice substantially, the effective conduct of public affairs; and for internal communications to be withheld as release would, or would be likely to cause substantial prejudice to intellectual property (IP) rights..

An exemption under regulation 11 of the EIRs also applies to some of the information you have requested because it contains personal information. The exemption allows the personal data relating to certain individuals to be withheld.

These exception are 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 because of the media coverage of the closure of the Mossmorran complex. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on Mossmorran will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that issue while it is still under discussion and development.

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 202500495062 - Information Released - Annex

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