Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) investigation: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
My FOI request relates to an investigation carried out by Environmental Standards Scotland (‘ESS’) (ESS reference IESS.24.015). According to Regulation 23 of the Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 all EIA screening opinions issued or adopted by Scottish Foresty must be made available for inspection on a website (or by other electronic means). The investigation concerned the fact that Scottish Forestry does not comply with this requirement. The representation alleged that this is unlawful.
ESS accepted the representation into its pre-investigative stage, and, in accordance with ESS’ procedure, this entails correspondence between ESS and Scottish Forestry.
I would be grateful if you could send me all the information you hold relating to ESS’ investigation, including but not limited to:
- Copies of all correspondence between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of the investigation.
- Copies of all notes from meetings between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of the investigation.
- Copies of all notes of telephone calls between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of investigation.
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
My FOI request relates to an investigation carried out by Environmental Standards Scotland (‘ESS’) (ESS reference IESS.24.015). According to Regulation 23 of the Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 all EIA screening opinions issued or adopted by Scottish Foresty must be made available for inspection on a website (or by other electronic means). The investigation concerned the fact that Scottish Forestry does not comply with this requirement. The representation alleged that this is unlawful.
ESS accepted the representation into its pre-investigative stage, and, in accordance with ESS’ procedure, this entails correspondence between ESS and Scottish Forestry.
I would be grateful if you could send me all the information you hold relating to ESS’ investigation, including but not limited to:
- Copies of all correspondence between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of the investigation.
- Copies of all notes from meetings between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of the investigation.
- Copies of all notes of telephone calls between Scottish Forestry and ESS in respect of investigation.
Most of the information you have requested is available from the following link:
https://environmentalstandards.scot/our-work/our-corporate-and-governance-reports/ess-eir-004/
You may also find the following publication of interest:
https://environmentalstandards.scot/our-work/our-investigation-reports/scottish-forestrys-environmental-impact-assessment-process-informal-resolution-report/
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.
Please find attached the remaining information we hold in relation to your request.
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 regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) and 11(2) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested.
Please see Annex A for the reason(s) this/these exception(s) apply.
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