Correspondence relating to Newmains Farm Steading, Dirleton: EIR release

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


Information requested

A copy of all correspondence relating to your clients property at Dirleton New Mains Farm, near North Berwick between the Council’s Planning Department (including the Landscape Officer), Scottish Forestry, Gullane Area Community Council and the Dirleton Village Association.

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 some of the information you requested in pdf format where it is available.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because an exception(s) under regulation(s) Reg 11(2) (Personal data relating to third party) of the EIRs applies to that information. 

The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in Annex 1 to this letter.

Annex 1
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
Personal data relating to third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. Reg 11(2) (Personal data relating to third party).
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some the information requested because it is personal data of a third party (names and contact information) 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.

FoI-202000066001 - Information released

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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