All discussions or communications relating to Westfield Mill West Lothian: FOI release

Information requested

 

You asked for all information in the form of emails, notes of telephone calls, meeting notes, memoranda and other documents, in whatever format, showing the extent, nature and content of any internal discussions or communications between the Scottish Government and any other party in relation to 

• The former Westfield Mill West Lothian for the period 1 Jan 2016 to date; and
• The proposed housing infrastructure application made in relation to the former Westfield Mill, West Lothian, by Westfield Developments (Jersey) Limited in or around July 2017, including confirmation of the status of that application.

 

Response

 

1.      I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

 

 2.     The answer to your question is that the Scottish Government considered an application for Housing Infrastructure Loan Funding from Westfield Developments (Jersey) Limited during the period May to September 2017 but was unable to support that application. The applicant was advised of this in September 2017 and we have had no further contact with the company or their agents since November 2017. We have had no further applications from any other applicants about this site since that time.

 

3.      Some of the information you have requested is available from www.gov.scot/publications/foi-18-01700/  Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.  If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

 

4.     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 exemptions under sections 33(1) (b) (commercial interests) of FOISA applies to that information.  The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

 

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.
If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.
 

ANNEX 

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

 

An exemption applies

An exemption under section 33(1) (b) (commercial interests) of FOISA applies where disclosure would (or would be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation. 

This means that the document(s) contains commercially sensitive information submitted by the applicant in relation to potential loan funding (including application forms, legal documents, costs, cash funding profiles, sales prices, site investigation reports and proposed solutions and costings etc.) sought from the Scottish Government. Releasing this information may prejudice the applicants commercial and business interests. This information has either been redacted from the document(s) or not released.

We have redacted the names of all staff, email addresses and personal telephone numbers of Scottish Government under Director level and third party names, email addresses and personal telephone numbers in all of the documentation provided.

These exemptions are 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 exemption.

 

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.