Environmental Impact Assessments for Forestry Projects: EIR release

Information requested

I am interested in your processes for Scoping and EIA assessment for your consents.

I have looked at your website and found various documents which explain processes, but i have not found any criteria for what impacts you consider significant, or how you consider sensitivity of ecological features.

For example, your Word document 'EIA scoping Document' dated February 2022 includes space for an author to enter into its column 4 'Is the effect likely to be significant? Why?'. At the bottom of the document there are tables giving a definition of sensitivity and magnitude, whichco mbine to provide significance. These tables are repeated in your document 'Undertaking an Environmental Impact Assessment in Forestry (2022)'

However, I have not found any examples or more detailed guidance on what you consider to be sensitive at a high level. For example, if you receive a project application, would 1ha of a UKBAP priority habitat be considered sensitive at a high scale, or medium or low scale? How would you consider the sensitivity of 100ha or 1000ha of a UKBAP priority habitat?

How do you consider the magnitude of impacts when you receive project applications? Would for example a loss of 1ha of UKBAP priority habitat be treated as a 'significant area' if it were all to be lost to a forestry project? Or for example how would the magnitude of 100ha or 1000ha be treated as a 'significant area' if those areas were to be lost to a forestry project?

There is an expectancy of consistency in decision-making on EIA Forestry applications. If different staff would give very different decisions, on the same application it would not be good public administration. To achieve this consistency, I therefore expect that you would have guidance to help your staff make consistent decisions.

Please could you confirm that you have unpublished guidance to your staff to assist them in determining mattes such as sensitivity, magnitude and significance on EIA Forestry applications for scoping and EIA applications. Did this guidance benefit from public consultations, or nonpublic consultations to external people / organisations? Please could you send me a copy of your guidance which is used by your staff to assist them in making a decision on these applications.

I consider that the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies to my requests. However, if you consider that the requests are for 'environmental information' please consider my requests under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

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.

Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request.

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 202500446864 - Information released - Annex

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