SNP in the wrong over Lochaber
Scottish Ministers breached Freedom of Information legislation by incorrectly claiming they held no information relating to Greensill Capital and the Lochaber guarantee.
In a ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner, published on Wednesday, the Scottish Government was forced to U-turn on its claim no relevant information was held on the topic.
Ministers were forced to apologise during the transparency probeafterwhattheydescribed as an “oversight”.
A member of the public had askedministersforinformation about interactions with Greensill Capital in connection with the Lochaber smelter guarantee and reimbursement agreement.
The Lochaber guarantee, whenagreed,ledtoanexposure to the taxpayer worth £586m and allowed Liberty Steel to purchase the smelter on the back of the debt raised from the agreement.
Ithasbeensubjecttoincreased scrutiny in the past year after Greensill Capital, Liberty Steel’s main funder, collapsed into insolvency in March 2021, sparking a political and financial scandal.
Officials within the Scottish Government initially claimed they did not hold any information relating to Greensill and the guarantee agreement, but later changed their mind, citing information held on their behalf by legal and commercial advisers fell within the scope of the request.
The decision notice states: “However, during the Commissioner’s investigation, the ministers identified that information,heldontheirbehalfbytheir legal and commercial advisers, would fall within the scope of the request.
"The ministers apologised for this oversight and conceded they were not entitled to
respond to the request in terms of section 17(1) of FOISA.”
Darenfitzhenry,theinformation commissioner, concluded: “The Commissioner finds that, by incorrectly informing the applicant that they did not hold
information falling within the scope of the request, the ministers failed to comply with section 1(1) of FOISA.”
Thescotsmanrevealedministerswereadvisedtheguarantee agreement may have breached state aid rules amid the publication of details from a consultancy report.
Thescottishgovernmentwas contacted for comment.