Publication - FOI/EIR release

Phase 2 of the Bus Abatement Retrofit Programme (BEAR) scheme: EIR release

Published: 3 October 2019
Topic: Public sector, Transport
FOI reference: FOI/19/01070
Date received: 17 April 2019
Date responded: 3 October 2019

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

You asked for the following information on Phase 2 of the Bus Abatement Retrofit Programme (BEAR) scheme. Specifically:

1. All correspondence between Transport Scotland and Energy Saving Trust regarding views expressed by specific bus operators on the phase 2 of the bus emissions abatement retrofit programme and problems with specific applications to the scheme.

2. All internal correspondence within Transport Scotland about the views expressed by bus operators on the BEAR2 scheme and problems with specific applications to the scheme.

3. All correspondence between Transport Scotland and Scottish Ministers or their staff on uptake of and applications to BEAR2.

4. All information held on applications to BEAR2 from First Group, and any correspondence from First Group on this subject.

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 have numbered our response for ease of reference

1. Please see Attachment 1 for the information requested in relation to Point 1 of your request.
2. Please see Attachment 2 for the information requested in relation to Point 2 of your request.
3. Please see Attachment 3 for the information requested in relation to Point 3 of your request.
4. Please see Attachment 4 for the information requested in relation to Point 4 of your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information under points 1 to 4 of your request because exceptions have been applied. The reasons why the exceptions apply is explained in the Annex to this letter.

Reasons for not providing information - Annex
Exceptions apply - Reg 11(2)

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (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 Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. Personal data such as names, email addresses, mailing addresses and elephone numbers of third parties have not been disclosed.

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.

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.