Documentation relating to EIA-170-004 Screening direction request: EIR release

Information requested

Regarding EIA-170-004 Screening direction request, you asked for "all documentation relating to this matter between your department, the proposer of this development and the local council. This is to be from May 2023 to date. To confirm this is all information to include emails, minutes of meetings and all other methods of communication. (WhatsApp/ TEAMs)".

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.

Response to your request

Most of the information you have requested is available online at DPEA casefile for EIA-170-004:
https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=125294

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

I also enclose one document regarding the EIA request, a Ministerial submission. An exception under regulation11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information 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 (GDPR).

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400439467 - Information Released - Annex

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