Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, visit to Germany promoting Scotland's potential in offshore wind and hydrogen: EIR release

Information requested

In September 2022 Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, visited Germany to promote Scotland's potential in offshore wind and hydrogen. Please provide any briefings prepared in advance of this trip, and any notes/minutes/MoU arising from meetings held during the trip.

A clarification was sought, and the requester agreed to limit the information to hydrogen and offshore.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested, please see the attachments.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is an unfinished document with incomplete data.

This exception 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 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 as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information which is still in being worked on is not disclosed when it might misinform the public on the matter to which the information relates.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication about developments on hydrogen and offshore wind.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. 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 hydrogen and offshore related policy 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.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(a) of the EIRs (prejudice to international relations, defence, national security or public safety) applies to some of the information requested because disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially relations between the United Kingdom and Germany. The effective conduct of international relations depends upon maintaining trust and confidence between the UK Government and other states. In this case, disclosing information about UK/Germany engagement on hydrogen and offshore wind would substantially prejudice relations between the UK and Germany because there is a need to maintain confidential dialogue in order to ensure that future engagement can take place in a spirit of trust and openness. This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in ensuring that the UK Government is able to maintain good relations with other states, in order to protect and promote UK interests. There can be no public interest in jeopardising those relations by the Scottish Government disclosing this information.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by a range of companies in the brief and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. Disclosing this information would be likely to give their competitors an advantage in future similar tendering exercises, which would substantially prejudice their ability to submit competitive tenders and so could significantly harm their commercial business.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which are looking into invest into Scotland.

A further exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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 exception 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 exception.

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EIR - 202200333765 - Information release

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69 page PDF

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2.0 MB