I would like to make a freedom of information request of the Scottish Government for any lists of businesses which received support from this local government, for Coronavirus. If this has already been published, or if I need to contact another organisation to obtain these, please let me know.If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and assist requesters. If any of this information is already in the public domain, please can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if necessary.If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that information should not be treated as confidential if such an agreement has not been signed.
Response
The Council has considered your request for information and concluded that the exemption s33(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies. Providing that "information is exempt if … its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person (including, without prejudice to that generality, a Scottish public authority)."
The Council is of the view that releasing the requested information would not substantially prejudice the commercial interests of the authority. However, the legislation provides that the release of the relevant information is exempt if it would substantially prejudice the commercial interests of any person. In this case, consideration was given to the way in which the release of this information into the public domain could impact the business. Although we are able to release more general statistical information such as the number of applications made, refused and paid and so on, releasing information detailing the business or individuals name and address may impact their commercial interests.
The Council considered the public interest in disclosing the information requested, and acknowledged that there is a general interest in ensuring the transparency of all transactions involving public funds. However, we also discussed the availability of public information regarding COVID grants, and considered that there was a general awareness of the existence of grant funding and the types of business who were able to apply for this funding. We also considered that the public interest lay with ensuring that the various funds were appropriately administered, rather than knowing what level of funding individual applicants received. We did not consider that there was any public interest in disclosing the detail regarding individual applications. In the circumstances, we weighed up the public interest in transparency against the commercial interests of the recipient business. We concluded that the involvement and oversight of the Scottish Government provides the public with the necessary assurances regarding the Council's administration of these grants and that there was therefore no justification to outweigh the protection of the applicant's commercial interests.
