Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability Fund and woodland creation scheme contracts: EIR release

Information requested

1. Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability Fund LP (Company number SL034785) has purchased a few dozen sites in Scotland either already with Sitka spruce plantations, or to plant new (probably Sitka spruce) plantations, for new woodland creation schemes.

Please provide all contracts for the new woodland creation schemes, either signed, awaiting being signed, or provisional contracts subject to change (these have been provided before at pre-app stage) that have yet to be signed, that have been awarded to this fund.

2. Please provide a list of woodland creation schemes (with reference numbers) at pre-app or application stage where there is not yet a contract, in relation to this fund.

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.

We have responded to the request as numbered above.

Response to your request

1. Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability Fund LP (Company number SL034785) has purchased a few dozen sites in Scotland either already with Sitka spruce plantations, or to plant new (probably Sitka spruce) plantations, for new woodland creation schemes.

Please provide all contracts for the new woodland creation schemes, either signed, awaiting being signed, or provisional contracts subject to change (these have been provided before at pre-app stage) that have yet to be signed, that have been awarded to this fund.

Whilst we do not have any contracts with “Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability Fund LP”, we do have a number of contracts with “GH Forest Growth & Sustainability LP”.

The name “GH Forest Growth & Sustainability LP” matches the Companies House registration for Companies House number SL034785 cited in the request except “Gresham House” has been shortened to “GH” in the business registration and while the names are slightly different, we are of the understanding this is the relevant business in relation to the information sought from this request.

Given the volume of documents included in our response, copies of the information we hold in relation to your request will be emailed to you separately.

2. Please provide a list of woodland creation schemes (with reference numbers) at pre-app or application stage where there is not yet a contract, in relation to this fund.

The table below completes the data request, with one application under assessment and two applications in draft – there are no further application in development (Pre-App).

FGS Grant Applications Submitted for Assessment
Todrig NWC	25FGS84239
Draft FGS Applications in Preparation
Wester Leochel Farm NWC	22FGS69667
Lettershaws	25FGS84479
Pre-Application Cases in Development
n/a		+

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) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information you have requested.

Please see Annex A for the reason(s) this/these exception(s) apply.

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 202500474203 - Information released - Annex A

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