Financial support of the Saltire Housing Design Awards: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. Please provide a full and detailed financial account of each year’s sponsorship or funding from 2014 to 2024. Please state the amount of funding for each year that was given to the Saltire Society.
2. Please provide a copy of all contracts or terms of agreements relating to this sponsorship or funding during this time.
3. Please provide a copy of all correspondence relating to this sponsorship that the government holds.
4. Please provide a copy of any reports or correspondence relating to the decision to cease the funding.
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.
I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested in the following format:
Request 1
A table containing the total grant amount, broken down by any constituent elements as described in the grant letter, for each year requested.
Request 2
The grant letters issued for the Saltire Society Housing Design Awards. These documents contain all requirements and conditions of the grant award related to the provision of funding for each year requested.
Requests 3 and 4
Correspondence relating to this sponsorship that the government holds and correspondence relating to the decision to cease the funding.
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(s) under regulation(s) 10(4)(e) - Internal communications and 11(2) - Personal data of a third party of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception(s) applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.
ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exception applies
An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) - Internal Communications of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested, and has been applied to redact some of the information within scope of the request as it relates to internal communications between officials.
This exception has been used to withhold on procedures for internal handling of correspondence including requesting comments on draft documents, such as Ministerial responses, for which the final version of the documents have been released.
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.
An exception under Regulation 11(2) (personal data of a third party) of the EIRs has been applied to redact some of the information within scope of the request where it relates to personal data consisting of names and contact details of third party individuals.
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