UK Energy Profits Levy documentation: EIR release

Information requested

Your request, covering the timeframe from 1 September 2021 up to 26 May 2022 inclusive, asked for:

1. All correspondence, briefings, representations, or communications (including, but not limited to, emails, letters, minutes of meetings, internal briefing notes, WhatsApp or other messaging app messages, and any attachments) between the Scottish Government (Ministers, Special Advisers, or officials, including civil servants) and any of the following, concerning the proposed or eventual introduction of the UK Energy Profits Levy (“windfall tax” on oil and gas profits): HM Treasury The UK Government (including the Prime Minister’s Office / Cabinet Office) The Scotland Office UK Ministers or their Special Advisers.

2. Internal Scottish Government correspondence and briefing material concerning the proposed or eventual introduction of the UK Energy Profits Levy, specifically: Internal correspondence (including emails and messages) between Scottish Government officials and/or Special Advisers, and any briefings, submissions, or internal notes prepared by officials for Scottish Ministers or Special Advisers, where such material discusses: the Energy Profits Levy or a windfall tax on oil and gas profits, and/or the Scottish Government’s position, advice, or proposed “lines to take” in relation to the Levy or equivalent proposals.

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 in Annex B (covering question 1) and Annex C (covering question 2).

By way of context to these materials, you may wish to note that whilst the Scottish Government supported the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) at its original rate and duration, we have not supported the recent extensions and other changes made under successive UK Governments. The Scottish Government’s position is that the EPL was an acceptable measure when oil and gas companies were making windfall profits, but those days ended years ago. We did not support either the extension of the EPL to 2029 under the previous UK Government, nor the further extension (to 2030) and increase in rate under the current UK Government at the 2024 UK Autumn Budget. We have also consistently called for windfall taxes to be applied fairly across all sectors of the UK economy where there are excess profits.

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.

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 202500496916 - Information released - Annex A - C

File type

PDF

File size

827.1 kB