Correspondence sent to Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity on the subject of Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: EIR release

Information requested

1. Any correspondence sent to Lorna Slater in her role as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy, and Biodiversity between 2021 and 2023 on the subject of part 1 or part 2 of Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill as originally drafted.
2. Any correspondence sent from Lorna Slater in her role as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy, and Biodiversity between 2021 and 2023 on the subject of part 1 or part 2 of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill as originally drafted.

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.

Request for copies of correspondence to or from the former Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater regarding parts one and two of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill

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

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.

Please note that for the purposes of your request we have conducted searches for information held between the dates of 31 August 2021 (the date of Ms Slater’s ministerial appointment) and 31 December 2023.

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 202500496587 - Information released - Annex A & Annex B

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