Publication - FOI/EIR release

New Islay Ferries: EIR release

Published: 8 January 2024
Part of: Public sector
FOI reference: 202200301167
Date received: 16 May 2022
Date responded: 13 July 2022

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

All information held, including legal opinion, about the decision by ministers and CMAL to name Cemre Marin Endustri at the preferred bidder to build two new CalMac ferries for Islay between September last year and end of March this year.
Details of the rival bidders for the contract and what they offered. Communications between the Scottish Government, CMAL and Cemre Marin Endustri about the contract between those dates.

All the above should include, but is not limited to all internal memorandums, emails and other electronic communications such as What's App.

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.

Response

Some of the information you have requested has had the following exceptions applied;

Regulation 10(4)(e) - Internal Communications of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows public authorities to refuse to disclose internal communications.

Regulation 10(5)(e) - Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows authorities to withhold information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by law to protect a legitimate economic interest.

Regulation 10(5)(f) – Third party interests of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows authorities to withhold information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of the person who supplied the information.

Relating to part 1 of your request, of the documents provided, Regulation 10(4)(e), Regulation 10(5)(e) and Regulation 10(5)(f) have been applied where required. These exceptions are 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 these exceptions.

We understand that the Scottish Government should be open and transparent with all information. However in this instance we need to protect our robust procurement process and ensure it is handled in accordance with our procurement strategy thus not disadvantaging any bidders that were part of this exercise and any future potential procurement exercises. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding these exceptions.

Regulation 10(4)(a) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows public authorities to refuse to make environmental information available if they don’t hold the information when the request is received.Relating to part 2 of your request, under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has the information you are looking for. You therefore may wish to contact CMAL at info@cmassets.co.uk.

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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.