Publication - FOI/EIR release

Patrick Harvie's expenses and itinerary from April 2023 Copenhagen trip: FOI release

Published: 20 October 2023
Directorate: Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Topic: Public sector
FOI reference: 202300355519
Date received: 9 May 2023
Date responded: 6 June 2023

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Information requested

Full expenses from Patrick Harvie's trip to Copenhagen in April 2023, including travel, hotels and the expenses of his companions on the trip. How many civil servants accompanied him and their titles?
Full itinerary from his trip to Copenhagen, including dates of his travel back and forth and how he got there?
Minutes from any meetings he held while in Copenhagen.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

In this instance, an exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested in points 1 and 2 above, namely Mr Harvie's expenses and itinerary from his trip to Copenhagen in April 2023. This is as we intend to publish this information within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release some of this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

1) In response to point 1, two civil servants accompanied Mr Harvie throughout his trip to Copenhagen namely the Head of Heat in Buildings Futures Unit and Private Secretary. The full expenses for each civil servant are broken down as requested below:

Head of Heat in Buildings Futures Unit total = £948.41

Travel - £317.96 (flights & transport to and from Edinburgh Airport)

Hotels - £558.35

Expenses - £72.10 (meals & transport in Copenhagen)

Private Secretary total = £1,895.65

Travel - £920.33

Hotels - £840.14

Expenses - £135.18.

2) All information on trip itinerary is exempt as above under section 27(1) (Future publication: 12 weeks) of FOISA.

3) Meeting minutes from the 6 meetings held during Mr Harvie's visit to Copenhagen can be found attached (six documents). Names of Danish officials and sensitive information has been redacted under section 32(1) of FOISA (international relations). Some of this information has been supplied confidentially and, therefore, redacting this information is in the best interest of protecting the relationship between the Scottish Government and our Danish counterparts.

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