Breakdown of all forestry grants: EIR release

Information requested

A full breakdown of all grants and other funds either paid or still to be paid as a contract commitment for trees, tree planting, fencing and any other items associated with the following tree planting projects below that are listed on the Woodland Carbon Code register:

• Ralia (ID104000000026734) Scottish Woodlands Ltd
• Abhainn Bheag (ID104000000027701) Akre
• Bens (ID 104000000027819) Akre
• Braomisaig (ID 104000000027026) Akre
• Cluainairighe (ID 104000000027681) Akre
• Coire Sgreucha (ID 104000000027377) Akre
• Far Ralia (ID104000000028548) Akre
• Kilrie Farm (ID 104000000026700) Akre
• Kinneston (ID 104000000027027) Akre
• Leckie Estate (ID 104000000027702) Akre

[…]

Please could the response itemise the year the contract commitments were entered and list the organisation(s) that are due to receive or have received the grant payments.

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.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information 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.

Response

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 an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested. This information is redacted in our response.

In addition, as noted in our letter informing you of our decision to extend the deadline for our response, because of the way our systems work, it has not been possible to provide all of the information that you have requested.

This is because Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) projects are registered using different systems and references than Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) projects, and a WCC project code does not automatically allow us to identify a related FGS project.

Therefore, we are applying the exception under Regulation 10(4)(a), information not held, as some of the information requested was not held by Scottish Forestry at the time of your request, as your request is worded.

If you are able to provide information which would help us to identify the Forestry Grant Scheme projects in question (ideally an FGS reference, but other information, e.g. a map of the area in question, may be sufficient) then we will consider this as a fresh request.

Ralia (ID104000000026734) Scottish Woodlands Ltd

2019	2020	2021
£763,926.10	£74,074.18	£74,822.40

Abhainn Bheag (ID104000000027701) Akre

We cannot identify woodland creation projects from this reference.

Bens (ID 104000000027819) Akre

Business Name: Knoydart Forest Trust.

FGS case name: Knoydart Woodland Creation Bens

FGS ref: 20FGS46685

Current Contract Value: £211,209.20

Paid to date (capital only): £164,419.20

Contracted payment years: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027

Braomisaig (ID 104000000027026) Akre

Business Name: Braomisaig

FGS name: Braomisaig Woodland Creation Planting

FGS ref: 20FGS48083

Contract Value: £32,283

Paid to Date: £22,636.08 (inc. SAF)

Contracted Payment Year: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

Cluainairighe (ID 104000000027681) Akre

We cannot identify woodland creation projects from this reference.

Coire Sgreucha (ID 104000000027377) Akre

We cannot identify woodland creation projects from this reference.

Far Ralia (ID104000000028548) Akre

As noted in our previous release (our ref 2023/00350566, copy attached), “At time of writing, there have been no rural payments paid or contract commitments made by Scottish Forestry or Scottish Government Rural Payments and Services regarding the land in question over the last 10 years.”

This position is still current at time of writing.

Kilrie Farm (ID 104000000026700) Akre

Business name: [personal data redacted]

Case name: Kilrie Woodland Creation.

Scheme information: 15.11ha of woodland planting in 2014 for circa £70,534.60 capital payment for woodland creation and associated works for central Scotland Mixed Woodland option. Annual payments for WC Maintenance & Farmland Premium for circa £9,066 for years 2014 – 2018 inclusive and annual Farmland Premium for circa £4,533 for 2019-2028 inclusive.

(Please note: amounts paid are noted as ‘circa’ as the actual figure will have been authorised and paid by the Rural Payments and Inspections Division. However, these are the contracted and claimed amounts, so we believe them to be accurate.)

Kinneston (ID 104000000027027) Akre

Business Name: Kinneston Farming Company

FGS name: Kinneston Small Farm Woodland Creation

FGS ref: 18FGS27661

Contract Value: £55,006.80

Paid to Date: £46,858.80 (inc. SAF)

Contracted Payment Year: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Leckie Estate (ID 104000000027702) Akre

We cannot identify woodland creation projects from this reference

About FOI

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.