Planning decisions overturned: EIR release

Information requested

Within the last 10-year period how many recommendations by Reporters submitted to Scottish Ministers, have then been subsequently overturned by Scottish Ministers.

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 some of the information you have requested. Attached is a list of cases where Scottish Ministers have gone against a reporter’s recommendation. This data covers the last 5 years. We cannot report on information covering the full 10 years because our previous case management system did not record this specific information. However, all planning decision letters from Scottish Government’s Planning and Architecture Division are available on DPEA website -https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseSearch.aspx?T=2

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) a) information not held. The reasons why that exception applies, and the application of the 'public interest test' are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX
Exceptions applied: 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have some the information you have requested because our previous case management system does not hold the information.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Despite not holding this information, we have a statutory obligation to apply this 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in this information, we do not hold all the information requested and authorities are not required to create new information in order to respond to a 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 202500462272 - Information Released - Annex

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Excel document

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