Queries regarding rural payments claimed on agricultural land: EIR release

Information requested

I’m looking for a freedom of information request regarding payments claimed on agricultural land.

On BPS claimed on NT fields that make up the holding 88/638/0010 which payment regions are the NT fields categorised in?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0010 what livestock types and stocking numbers/units have been submitted from the period 2015 to 2025?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0010 has there been an annual Environmental Assessment submitted from the period 2015 to 2025?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0010 has there been an environmental management agreement with NatureScot (formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage) or an agri-environmental commitment as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme submitted or active on the land in the period 2015-2025?

On BPS claimed on NT fields that make up the holding 88/638/0014 which payment regions are the NT fields categorised in?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0014 what livestock types and stocking numbers/units have been submitted from the period 2015 to 2025?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0014 has there been an annual Environmental Assessment submitted from the period 2015 to 2025?

On the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holding 88/638/0014 has there been an environmental management agreement with NatureScot (formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage) or an agri-environmental commitment as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme submitted or active on the land in the period 2015-2025?

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 can provide some of the information you requested:

For Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) the NT fields that make up 88/638/0010 are categorised as Region 2. For BPS and LFASS the NT fields that make up 88/638/0014 are categorised as either Region 1 or Region 2. If you have a Rural Payments and Services (RP&S) account, you can view non data protected information, including payment regions, on the Scottish agricultural map: New LPIS Map Viewer and Editing Functionality.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information (i.e. information relating to livestock types and numbers) you have requested. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies because it is information related to a small partnership which we consider personal information according to the definition of UK GDPR, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

Please also note that for BPS and LFASS the livestock information we do hold is declared at business level and as such could not be attributed to a specific location code, we would therefore be unable to provide a breakdown even if the exemption did not apply.

You also asked if an Environmental Assessment (EA) has been submitted on the area claimed for BPS and LFASS that makes up the holdings 88/638/0010 or 88/638/0014 for the period 2015 to 2025. I can confirm that no EA for BPS purposes has been submitted for this area.

There is no agri-environmental commitment as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme submitted or active on the land in the period 2015-2025.

With regards to the question about any NatureScot agreements, 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 information relating to any such agreements because the information is administered by NatureScot. Should you wish to submit a request to them, this can be done at: Freedom of Information requests | NatureScot.

This exception 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 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 information about habitat data, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.