Scotland Office

The complainant requested information associated with two meetings about the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), and one meeting with the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC). Scotland Office disclosed some information and withheld the remainder under regulations 12(4)(e), 12(5)(f) and 13 of the EIR, which concern internal communications, the interests of the information provider and personal data, respectively. During the Commissioner’s investigation Scotland Office decided that the majority of the information wasn’t environmental information and applied various FOIA exemptions, though it also cited regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR at this point. This exception concerns commercial confidentiality. However, Scotland Office’s final position is now that the majority of the information is environmental information, to which the above EIR exceptions apply. It considers section 35 of FOIA applies to the remainder. The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: Scotland Office correctly applied regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR to some information in both the DRS and NZTC documents. The public interest favours maintaining this exception in respect of the DRS briefing documents and information in the NZTC briefing document, but the public interest favours disclosing the information in the DRS readout documents to which regulation 12(4)(e) has been applied. Scotland Office correctly applied regulation 12(5)(e) to some information in one of the DRS briefing documents and the readout documents and the public interest favours withholding this information. Regulation 12(5)(e) isn’t engaged in respect of the remaining information to which this exception has been applied. Regulation 12(5)(f) isn’t engaged in respect of information in the DRS briefing and readout documents to which Scotland Office has applied this exception.The remaining information in the NZTC briefing and readout documents is exempt from disclosure under section 35(1)(a) of FOIA. The Commissioner requires Scotland Office to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Disclose the information in the DRS readout documents (Annex A2 and Annex B2) to which regulation 12(4)(e) solely has been applied. In addition, disclose the information marked as ‘Disclose’ in the Appendix to this notice.