Complaints on Ragwort from January 2016: EIR release

Information requested

1. Statistics in relation to the number of official complaints you have received regarding Ragwort in the UK, together with a breakdown of locations. If possible from Jan 2016 to date

2. Statistics on how you dealt with these complaints – how many resolved and if so how?

3. What/how many enforcement actions were taken in respect of complaints Jan 2016 to date. How many of the enforcement actions were successful?

4. Any other information on Ragwort in Scotland

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.

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested in the format you asked for.
You can find more information about Ragwort control management in Scotland in the following links from The Scottish Government website https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-guidance-prevent-spread-ragwort/pages/1/ and the British Horse Society website http://www.bhsscotland.org.uk/ragwort.html

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.

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