Former First Minister trip to America and COP27 attendance: FOI release

Information requested

1. What positive benefits have come from Nicola Sturgeon's trip to the USA in May 2022 and can you show the analysis for the positive benefits of the trip?
2. What contracts and inward investment came to Scotland as a result of this trip to the USA?
3. Out of the 25 officials who attended COP27, what were the roles and responsibilities of the individuals attending? Names as well if possible. What did they do while they were there and what do they have to show for attending?
4. Why did five Scottish Government officials stay in Egypt until 24 November when COP27 ended on 20 November?

Response

1/2. Attracting trade and investment takes months and years, and is dependent on independent organisations’ decisions. For this reason, outcomes are not attached to specific visits. Scotland has a strong track record of attracting inward investment which is evident in the recently published EY Attractiveness Survey indicating that despite Covid and war in Ukraine, Scotland’s growth has outpaced both the UK and Europe for the second year in a row. Additionally, the EY Survey finds that Scotland has maintained its position as the top performing region or nation of the UK for inward investment projects outside of London for the eighth year running. The USA is also Scotland’s single biggest trade and investment partner and accounts for 17.1% of Scottish exports.

Outcomes for our wider objectives are included in our international offices’ Monitoring and Evaluation reports. Additionally, we intend to publish our first Annual Report setting out the contribution of our international offices by the end of December 2023.

3. Some of the information has been withheld because exemptions under sections 25 (information otherwise accessible) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply to that information.

The Scottish Government officials who attended COP27 were:

• First Minister’s Special Adviser, Liz Lloyd
• Two senior civil servants: 
• Director for Energy and Climate Change, Kersti Berge
• Deputy Director, International Climate Change, Jemima Gordon-Duff
• The remaining officials were policy advisers, apart from the following roles:
• Head of Logistics
• Welfare Officer, Deputy Logistics
• Ministerial Senior Programme Officer
• Deputy Programme Officer
• Communications Officer
• First Minister’s Private Secretary
• Two First Minister Visits and Events Officers
• Minister’s Private Secretary
• Two members of the Scottish Government’s CivTech Alliance team

We published a document entitled ‘COP27: outcomes, achievements and costs’ which can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/cop27-outcomes-achievements-and-costs/pages/overview/

Section 25 – Information otherwise accessible
An exemption under section 25 applies to some of the information requested because it is information which is otherwise accessible. 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.

Section 38(1)(b) – Personal information
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) applies to some of the information 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.

4. All Scottish Government officials left COP27 on 19 November. Five officials did not fly back until 24 November for personal reasons, at no additional expense to the taxpayer.

About FOI
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