Proposed Local Authority Waste Management and Recycling Initiatives: EIR release

Information requested

A list of proposed local authority waste management and recycling initiatives over the next three years that are due to receive full or part funding from the Scottish Government and/or Zero Waste Scotland and the proposed level of such funding in each case.
Where concerns have been raised about the potential impact of the proposed Scottish deposit return scheme, how many of these initiatives have had (i) funding withheld and (ii) how many are currently being reviewed to determine if funding should be withheld?

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.

Zero Waste Scotland is supporting three Local Authority service changes this year, all of which relate to grants that were awarded and, at least, partially drawn down last year. The three projects are;

•  Stirling City Centre – non financial support only in 2019/20
•  Falkirk Council – grant for 2019/20 of £636,428
•  Fife Council – grant for 2019/20 of £122,801

None of these projects have had funding withheld, or reviewed. 
Currently, there are no funding awards for initiatives in 2020/21 and 2021/22. Funding awards would not normally be made that far in advance

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.