Communications on Public Opposition regarding Flamingo Land development: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
‘Please provide all internal communications, briefing notes, risk assessments, and media strategy documents generated or circulated within the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, or DPEA which reference or respond to public opposition, petitions, or media campaigns concerning the Flamingo Land development at Loch Lomond.
The time period for this request is 1st January 2021 to present. This includes WhatsApp messages, emails, Teams chats, and handwritten notes held in official records.’
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 differentregimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Response to your request
I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.
On reviewing materials within scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.
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