Bathing waters designation criteria: EIR release

Information requested

General information relating to the change of designation criteria and the changed application form, which were published in early 2023.

Notes of any meetings relating to change of designation criteria and the changed application form.

Copies of all correspondence relating to the change of designation criteria and the changed application form.

Copies of all documents relating to the change of designation criteria and the changed application form

Information which explains why the new criteria and application form were introduced.

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.

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.

Response to your request

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in a PDF format.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information being requested because Scottish Government doesn’t hold this information.

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.

EIR 202300390087 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

2 page PDF

File size

161.6 kB

EIR 202300390087 - Information Released - Annex B

File type

8 page PDF

File size

249.7 kB