Information recorded by First Minister's Office regarding Scottish wildcats: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03517  
Date received: 26 November 2018
Date responded: 21 December 2018

 

 

All information recorded in any form by the First Minister'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 a photograph from the Guardian newspaper; 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 25 September 2018 to the First Minister of Scotland refers to an image of a track being created during the wildcat breeding season in Clashindarroch  Forest. The picture was taken in April 2018 and featured  in a Guardian  article of 13th May, which can be obtained from the Guardian newspaper. Please see: https://www.theguardian.com/uk

 

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