Publication - FOI/EIR release

Large-scale housing development information: EIR release

Published: 20 November 2025
Directorate: Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Directorate
Topic: Building, planning and design, Housing, Public sector
FOI reference: EIR/202500480494
Date received: 15 August 2025
Date responded: 12 September 2025

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

Information regarding large-scale housing developments in Edinburgh and surrounding areas, specifically focusing on developments in Winchburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian.

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.

At Attachment 1 please find a Response Annex which contains links to some of the information you requested in the format you asked for.

Some of the information you have requested is already publicly available.

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, the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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 some of the information you have requested because:

the Scottish Government is not responsible for the subject
there is no requirement for Scottish Government to collect it
the information is not collected centrally by the Scottish Government
the information is collected by another authority/organisation (Local Authorities, Registers of Scotland)

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 large-scale housing developments in Edinburgh and surrounding areas, specifically focusing on developments in Winchburgh, East Lothian, and Midlothian, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, you may wish to contact the Local Authorities / Registers of Scotland using the contact details available on their websites, who may be able to help you.

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.