Information recorded by Fergus Ewing's Office regarding Scottish wildcats: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03518  
Date received: 26 November 2018
Date responded: 21 December 2018

 

 

All information recorded in any form by Fergus Ewing's Office regarding Scottish wildcats or wildcats

 

 

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.

As the exemption is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances  of this case, considered  if the  public interest in disclosing the information under FOISA 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.

 

I enclose  a copy of some of the information you  requested  in the format you asked for.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format, in this case, newspaper articles, a press release and Motion SSM-13223; and regulation 11(2) of the ElRs (personal information) applies to some of the information.

The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained below.

 

The information which  I have provided is attached as separate PDF documents:

 

 

 

Regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, (information which is already publicly available and easily accessible)

 

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) of the ElRs (information which is already publicly  available and easily accessible to you in another form or format) applies to some of the information requested as the correspondence of 6 June 2016 (MACCS 2016/0018437) refers to an article in the Press and Journal: 'Anger at plan to kill feral cats with shotguns', Wednesday, April 13, 2016, which can be obtained from the Press and Journal. Please see: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/

 

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) of the ElRs (information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format) applies to some of the information requested as the correspondence of 29 September 2017 from the Agricultural Consultancy & Valuation, Farm & Land Management Services , refers to the National Sheep Association's Press Release of Monday, 25th September 2017, which can be obtained from the National Sheep Association.

Please see: https://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/

 

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) of the ElRs (information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format) applies to some of the information requested as the Media digest of 22 June 2018 refers to National press coverage which includes the following article in the Times newspaper : Wildcats 'not threatened ' by windfarm expansion', 22 June 2018. Please see: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wildcats-not-threatened-by-wind-farm-expansion-wddfzljwh

 

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) of the ElRs (information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format) applies to some of the information requested as correspondence of 22 October 2018 refers to Motion S5M-13223: Joan McAlpine on Restoring the Caledonian Pinewood Forest, being selected for public debate  on Wednesday  31 October 2018. Please  see: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=11745&i=106308#ScotParlOR

 

Regulation 11(2) of the  ElRs  (personal information)

 

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the ElRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 . This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test' , so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the  information  outweighs the  public interest in applying the  exception.

 

 

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