Correspondence regarding undersea tunnels between Scottish islands: EIR release

Information requested

Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, analysis, about plans to build undersea tunnels between Scottish islands, from the last six months?

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 the information you requested in Annex A.

Some of the information you have requested is available to the public on the internet, therefore, we have included links where possible. 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.

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 11(2) (personal information) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter below.

Please note, any information that does not relate to the ask has been deemed ‘out of scope’ and therefore removed.

ANNEX

Reasons for not providing information

An exception applies While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under regulation 11(2) provides that where the information requested includes personal data about a person other than the applicant and disclosure would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998, the public authority shall not make that personal data available.

In this instance, we consider that to reveal whether the information you have requested exists or is held by the Scottish Government would involve making personal information available about employees of the Scottish Government’ or individuals who have corresponded with the Scottish Government in contravention of regulation 11. Therefore, all personal data has been removed or replaced with ‘[redacted]’.

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.

FOI 202500466577 - Information Released - Annex A

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