Correspondence with Scottish Water relating to water scarcity: EIR release

Information requested

1. All correspondence between Scottish Water and the Scottish Government regarding the resignation of Douglas Millican between October 2022 and the date of this FOI.
2. All correspondence between Scottish Water and the Scottish Government regarding water scarcity in Scotland between June 1 and the date of this FOI.

Response

As the information you have requested relates to '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.

Response to your request

I attach a copy of some of the information you requested.

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. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs in respect of your first question. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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 the nature of Mr Millican's departure from Scottish Water was via planned retirement and not resignation. Mr Alex Plant has subsequently been appointed as Scottish Water CEO.

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 senior management of public corporations clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

In respect of your second request for - 'All correspondence between Scottish Water and the Scottish Government regarding water scarcity in Scotland between June 1 and the date of this FOI' we have provided the information held by the Scottish Government.

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.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(a) - Substantial prejudice to international relations, public safety, etc of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. The table accompanying the documents sets out which documents which have either been redacted or withheld in their entirety. This exception has been used because the information relates to water infrastructure, the release of which could compromise national security.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because it shows the how reserves of water were affected by the prolonged dry spell in June 2023. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the release of information relating to locations and vulnerabilities of infrastructure which could compromise national security.

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 202300368596 - Information Released - Annex

File type

79 page PDF

File size

1.7 MB