Request to find out who has claimed land: EIR release

Information requested

I am requesting as to whom has claimed the land on their IACS (ref 2 fields), from 1991 each year to present, in what way the land has been claimed, seasonal access / secure tenancy and timings of any changes. Any past and present environmental schemes and any other information which may be of interest. Any information prior to 1991, to 1964 would also be of interest.
These two fields are bare land, no residential or agricultural buildings exist on either.

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.

The answer to your question is:

IACS information of fields A and B	1964-1999	2000- 2004	2005- 2014	2015- 2019
Whom has claimed the land on their IACS	No information held	[Redacted text]	[Redacted text]	[Redacted text]
What way the land has been claimed	No information held	Scottish Beef Calf Scheme (SBCS) Arable Area Payment Scheme (AAPS)	Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS)	Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)
Seasonal access / secure tenancy	No information held	Tenant	Tenant	Tenant

Please note that in spite the land was recorded on our system as Tenant, the nature of tenancy is something that we don’t record and therefore not held. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested, and an exception under regulation reg 11 (2) – Personal data relating to third party of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
The Scottish Government does not have the information

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.  The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because it was routinely destroyed, in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request.

This exception 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 exception.  We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.  While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about claimants and claims for rural land, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

An exception applies

Regulation 11(2) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party
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 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.

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.