Breakdown of all costs to create a National Park in Galloway: EIR release

Information requested

How much money has the Scottish Government spent in total in attempts to create a National Park in Galloway, with a breakdown of all costs?

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.

Request for a breakdown of costs in relation to the proposal for a new National Park to be located in the Galloway area

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. Where information is already publicly available I have provided you with the links to the relevant websites. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The Scottish Government has previously published a breakdown of costs associated with the National Park proposal as part of our response to EIR request 202400406935 which was published on 3 May 2024 and can be found here.

I wish to highlight that while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold some of the information you have requested, namely the cost(s) incurred by Scottish Government officials working on the National Park proposal which would form part of the overall costs of the work associated with said proposal. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

It may help if I explain that Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to say specifically how much time has been spent and the subsequent cost involved with work on the proposal for Scotland’s next national park by Civil Servants.

I would note that our previous response (202400406935) provided figures up to and including the date of 28 March 2024. I have provided a breakdown of further costs incurred by the Scottish Government (where available) since the previous publication covering the period of 29 March 2024 to 3 June 2025 below for your convenience:

Costs to date	Total (£)
Appraisal process	1,130.24
Impact Assessments	23,710.79
Publication costs	3,226.39
Total	28,067.42

I also wish to highlight that the public consultation on the proposal for a new National Park in Galloway and Ayrshire was undertaken by NatureScot – in its role as the statutory reporter – from 7 November 2024 to 14 February 2025. The Scottish Government does not hold any information relating to the cost of said consultation, in this instance you may wish to contact NatureScot directly to request details of any costs incurred by them in relation to the aforementioned consultation work. Contact information for NatureScot can be found here.

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.