Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) costs and correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

1. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on fixing Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the last three years, with a breakdown of what the money was spent on? and;

2. Could you supply all correspondence held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, analysis, briefings, about Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), from the last two months?

You subsequently amended the wording of part 2 to ‘the housing minister portfolio/department’, and, ‘topic-wise to buildings found with RAAC and repairs’

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

In response to part 1, the Scottish Government has not spent any money on fixing RAAC in the last three years.

In respect of part 2 of your request (as revised) relevant information accompanies this response.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government webpages regarding the Ministerial Working Group on Building & Fire Safety and the RAAC Cross Sector Working Group (and housing sub-group). In addition, information relating to the RAAC petition currently under consideration by the Scottish Parliament's Civic Participation and Public Petitions Committee is available on the relevant webpage. You may also be interested in a previous response to an EiR request, covering correspondence between Aberdeen City Council and the Scottish Government regarding RAAC between 1 August and 21 November.

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.

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.

In addition, Exceptions under regulations 10(4)(d), 10(4)(e) and 10(5)(f) of the EIRs apply to some of the information you have requested. Reg 10(4)(d) allows a public body to withhold information which is not yet complete or in the course of completion, 10(4)(e) allows for the withholding of information that relates to internal communications and Reg 10(5)(f) concerns information where there was no obligation for that information to be provided to the authority or consent to its disclosure.

These exceptions are 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 of the ongoing public, Parliamentary  and media interest in RAAC. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the free flow of internal exchanges and advice on developing issues, including while data is being gathered and information is being sought and clarified as part of formulating an appropriate response in dealing with RAAC.

In addition, in respect of Reg 10(5)(f), we consider that disclosure of information provided by third parties under no obligation to do so and provided in the expectation of confidentiality would substantially prejudice the likelihood of external organisations supplying information, particularly on issues of sensitivity, in future.

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 202500447631 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

16.2 MB