Meeting between Former First Minister and the Governor of California: FOI release

Information requested

Information relating to the meeting between First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and California Governor Jerry Brown on or around 3 April 2017 in Sacramento:

• Any briefing papers, pre-meeting notes, or preparation documents provided to the First Minister or Scottish Government officials.
• Any minutes, notes, summaries, or post-meeting reports of the discussions.
• Any correspondence (including emails, letters, or memos) between Scottish Government officials and California state officials related to arranging or following up on the meeting.
• Details of attendees from the Scottish side.
• Any internal records summarising the topics discussed or outcomes agreed (beyond publicly available statements).

Response

Briefing papers

I enclose a copy of most of the information you have requested. This can be found at Annex A.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b), personal information, of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested because it is personal data of a third party (i.e. names/contact details of individuals), 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 exemption 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 exemption.

An exemption under section 32(1)(a), international relations, of FOISA applies to some of the information you requested. Information is exempt from disclosure if disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between the UK and another state.

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.

We recognise that there is some public interest in disclosing information on UK relations as part of open government and transparency. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the Scottish and UK Governments being able to maintain good and honest relations with states they choose to engage with.

Minutes, attendee details, summary and agreed outcomes

The information you have requested is available here:

First Minister trip to USA for Tartan Week: FOI release - gov.scot

First Minister visits USA: FOI release - gov.scot

Scotland and California tackling climate change - gov.scot

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Correspondence between Scottish Government officials and California state officials

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you requested.

The Scottish Government does not hold any correspondence between Scottish Government officials and California state officials regarding the meeting between the former First Minister and California Governor Jerry Brown.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have 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 202600499990 - Information released - Annex A

File type

PDF

File size

521.1 kB