Stobo Woodland Creation scheme: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
1. All communication between Scottish Forestry and the Rural Payments Inspectorate Directorate concerning the site from 28 October 2024 up to the present day.
2. As a claim for payment was made on 15 May 2024 and the standard security was in place 4 July 2024, why was no payment made to the Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund, given that Scottish Forestry claim they were unaware of the blanket spraying of herbicide until August 2024?
3. Has Scottish Forestry carried out any substantive inspections since 28 October 2024 to investigate if any breaches of the UKFS and now cancelled contract have occurred? We are not asking if a ‘claims inspection’ has occurred, but if Scottish Forestry have comprehensively examined the any part of the site determining if further UKFS and contractual breaches have occurred and documented these.
4. If Scottish Forestry has carried out an inspection of any kind since 28 October 2024, please could you provide the date this occurred, the job titles of staff involved and a comprehensive inspection report.
5. If Scottish Forestry has not carried out an inspection of any kind since 28 October 2024, please provide any information relating to future proposals to inspect the site and if this inspection will be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all potential UKFS and contractual breaches across the whole site.
6. If Scottish Forestry has no plans to inspect the site, why is this, given that Scottish Forestry has a remit to regulate forestry in Scotland?
7. Please provide copies of all correspondence between Scottish Forestry and third parties concerning the Stobo Woodland creation scheme from 28 October 2024 to date.
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.
1. All communication between Scottish Forestry and the Rural Payments Inspectorate Directorate concerning the site from 28 October 2024 up to the present day.
An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to all of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between Scottish Government officials about the Stobo woodland creation scheme.
2. As a claim for payment was made on 15 May 2024 and the standard security was in place 4 July 2024, why was no payment made to the Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund, given that Scottish Forestry claim they were unaware of the blanket spraying of herbicide until August 2024?
The claim for the works carried out was received on 15 May 2024 and captured in our system however not processed. Our claim deadline for the 2023 claim year was 17 May 2024 and the claim was for works carried out under 23FGS74574. The claim was not processed as there was a need for a standard security in place first which was in place on 4 July 2024 as you have noted. However, by this point a judicial review was lodged on 19 April 2024. Given this complication, it was decided not to process the claim any further until the outcome of the judicial review and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process was known.
3. Has Scottish Forestry carried out any substantive inspections since 28 October 2024 to investigate if any breaches of the UKFS and now cancelled contract have occurred? We are not asking if a ‘claims inspection’ has occurred, but if Scottish Forestry have comprehensively examined the any part of the site determining if further UKFS and contractual breaches have occurred and documented these.
No, as the claim was captured but not processed, the site was not selected for claim inspection and hence none has been carried out. However, due to staff changes within Scottish Forestry, there have been a number of site visits organised to get others fully up to speed on this case given its complexity and sensitivity. Those have been focussed on the site related issues and sensitivities. Clearly whilst on site SF staff have seen areas that had been planted, sprayed etc and there are sections of the site where the fence is clearly visible.
As Scottish Forestry stopped works part way through the project delivery, at this moment in time the scheme is not UK Forestry Standard (5th edition) compliant. The main reason is that we stopped work before the broadleaves were planted on site, thus depriving the opportunity for the developer to ensure compliance.
As this case is now a forestry project that requires Environmental Impact Assessment consent, Scottish Forestry will be evaluating the whole scheme again including those already planted. We will also be assessing this against the UK Forestry Standard (5th edition), which came into force on 1 October 2024.
We note that you refer to contract breeches but as the contract was reduced by court proceedings, there is no contract in place under which breeches could be evaluated.
4. If Scottish Forestry has carried out an inspection of any kind since 28 October 2024, please could you provide the date this occurred, the job titles of staff involved and a comprehensive inspection report.
As noted above, there has been no formal inspection, therefore Regulation 10(4)(a) applies. This is a formal notice under 10(4)(a) of the EIRs that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.
Those who have been on site at different visits include: Conservator(s) Senior Operations manager, Operations Manager, Technical Officer(s), Director of Operational Delivery, Forest Planning Advisor, Woodland Creation and Case Support Manager, Head of Woodland Creation and Regulation and Professional support to the Chief Forester.
5. If Scottish Forestry has not carried out an inspection of any kind since 28 October 2024, please provide any information relating to future proposals to inspect the site and if this inspection will be sufficiently comprehensive to identify all potential UKFS and contractual breaches across the whole site.
Scottish Forestry has informed the applicant that this is now a project requiring Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) consent and the developer has been asked to commence the process of EIA scoping. Depending on the outcome of scoping, it is likely that further survey work and consideration into the scheme design will be necessary.
The situation that we are in currently is very unusual where there is neither consent nor a contract in place following the previous court action. In the event that the project receives EIA consent then there will be a formal basis under which to undertake formal inspection, but this is not likely to be until 2026 at the earliest.
6. If Scottish Forestry has no plans to inspect the site, why is this, given that Scottish Forestry has a remit to regulate forestry in Scotland?
This scheme has only been partially implemented and is in the process of applying for EIA consent. In the event that some or all of the proposed planting is consented in the future, it would be inspected at that time, when it is clear what if any of the planting has been consented.
7. Please provide copies of all correspondence between Scottish Forestry and third parties concerning the Stobo Woodland creation scheme from 28 October 2024 to date.
This correspondence comprises three categories:
We do not have to provide Correspondence between Scottish Forestry and third parties which have already been published:
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. In the below we have provided you with the relevant links to access this information. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the webpages listed then please contact us again and we will send you a paper copy.
Stobo woodland creation scheme information: EIR release - gov.scot
https://www.forestry.gov.scot/publications/search-result?filter_search=stobo&show_category=0
- Correspondence regarding the ongoing Stobo judicial review case which has been withheld under regulation 10(5)(b) (prejudice to the course of justice).
- Correspondence between Scottish Forestry and third parties which is being partially released, regulations 11(2) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested and has been redacted on the requested correspondence.
Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to provide further information which may be of interest:
Please see Annex A for the reason(s) this/these exception(s) apply.
Given the volume of documents included in our response, copies of the information we hold in relation to your request will be emailed to you separately.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under Regulations 10(4)(a) (information not held), 10(5)(b) (substantial prejudice to course of justice),10(4)(e) (internal communications) and 11(2) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested.
Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.
If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG