Discussions around the potential impact of coastal erosion to global warming in Glasgow: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03308
Date received: 7 November 2018
Date responded: 19 December 2018

 

 

You asked for:
 
1.  All material held regarding any discussions around the potential impact of coastal erosion due to global warming in Glasgow (this should include internal communications, external communications, briefing/proposal documents, minutes of meetings and any other relevant documents) from January 2010 – present.
 
2.  All material held regarding any discussions around any possible plans or actions put in place to tackle the impact of coastal erosion due to global warming in Glasgow (this should include internal communications, external communications, briefing/proposal documents, minutes of meetings and other relevant documents) from January 2010 – present.  

Response

 

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.
 
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested, therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.  
 
Whilst we do not hold any information that comes under the scope of your request the following may be of interest to you;  Dynamic Coast website – http://www.dynamiccoast.com/ - Scotland’s Coastal Change Assessment, and in particular the report covering cell 6 Mull of Kintyre to Mull of Galloway -
http://dynamiccoast.com/files/reports/NCCA%20-%20Cell%206%20-%20Mull%20of%20Kintyre%20to%20the%20Mull%20of%20Galloway.pdf

A Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report Impacts of sea level rise and storm surges due to climate change in the Firth of Clyde: - https://www.nature.scot/snh-commissioned-report-891-impacts-sea-level-rise-and-storm-surges-due-climate-change-firth-clyde
 
Climate Ready Clyde, a collaborative adaptation partnership for the City Region, initially set up with Scottish Government funds but now funded by partners within Climate Ready Clyde: - http://climatereadyclyde.org.uk/

 

 

The Scottish Government does not have the information.
 
Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. 
 
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the potential impacts of coastal erosion in Glasgow due to global warming and any possible plans or actions put in place to tackle the potential impact of coastal erosion due to global warming in Glasgow, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.