Planning policy in local development plans: EIR release

Information requested

All of the information held in relation to the production of the Adoption of Scottish planning policy in local development plans: research report.

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 copies of the information you requested.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. Regulation 11(2) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) sets outs when personal data can and cannot be disclosed under the EIRs. Personal data must not be disclosed if it belongs to a third party. Therefore personal details relating to individuals have been redacted prior to disclosure.

You will see that the attachments include confirmation from Ironside Farrar which confirms that they have deleted all the information which they held. This is in line with the Scottish Government’s Terms and Conditions 2 – Conditions of Contract for the Purchase of Services which confirms that “Data should be retained for a period of no more than 3 months beyond the date of the final invoice following expiry of this contract and all data should be destroyed within 3 months of the date of the final invoice unless legislative requirements dictate otherwise or unless agreed in writing with the purchaser.”

The information you have requested is attached separately as per below listing:  

• Specification issued setting out proposed terms of research
• Research bid
• Draft spreadsheet
• Comparison spreadsheet
• Updated spreadsheet
• Updated spreadsheet
• Draft report
• Updated report
• Draft questionnaire
• Draft of completed report
• Updated final report
• Terms and Conditions
•  LDP comparison tables
•  Various email traffic (some reference the above as attachments)

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. 

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.