Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations and register: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request 202500478305

1. Copies of all the guidance, template documents, checklists and any other documents used by RPID to make screening opinions under the 2017 EIA Regulations.

2. All information held in respect of the referencing system which is used to allocate reference numbers to entries on RPID’s public EIA register.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) for

1. Copies of all the guidance, template documents, checklists and any other documents used by RPID to make screening opinions under the 2017 EIA Regulations.

2. All information held in respect of the referencing system which is used to allocate reference numbers to entries on RPID’s public EIA register - https://www.ruralpayments.org/topics/inspections/all-inspections/crosscompliance/environmental-impact-assessment/public-register/. By way of background to this part of my request, I have noticed that the numbering system which is used on the public EIA register does not appear to correspond to the number of entries on the register. The referencing system used appears to be in the format ‘year-number of EIA screening application. The reference numbers from 2023 onwards are significantly higher than the number of entries published on the register. For example, in 2025 the second part of the reference number has reached 13 (the latest entry has the reference 2025-013), but only two entries have been published this year.

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 have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

As part of my review I have reached the decision that your initial request was not handled properly and I would like to apologise for the fact that where an exception was applied to withhold information in the original response you received, no reasoning was provided to confirm which exception was being applied and explain why the information was not being released. I’m sorry that the response that you received fell short of our statutory obligations in processing EIR requests and feedback has now been provided to the original case handler to ensure that any exceptions applied to withhold information as part of future EIR responses are clear to the requester and fully reasoned.

In the original response you received the case handler redacted hyperlinks to internal documents. For full disclosure, I have now revised the version of the document titled “ALDIP EIA Internal Guidance” which is being released as part of this review to remove these redactions.

Within the original response that you received there was information withheld, which was correct, however the exception being applied to allow this information to be withheld was not specified. 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 10(4)(e) (internal communications) of the EIRs applies to that information. An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal legal advice and disclosure would breach legal professional privilege.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the strong public interest in maintaining the right to confidentiality of communications between legal advisers and clients, to ensure that Ministers and officials are able to receive legal advice in confidence, like any other public or private organisation.

As part of my review process, I have now updated the document “ALDIP EIA Internal Guidance” so it is clear that the information is being withheld under the exception EIR regulation 10(4)(e) (internal communications).

In the interests of clarity, I have also renamed and reattached the documents that were released in your original response so that it is clear that no redactions have been made to these documents:

• ALDIP EIA Case schedule of documents – Index template – full release
• ALDIP EIA Screening proforma template – full release

I also include a further document titled “ALDIP EIA Case schedule of documents – Redacted Documents template – full release” which falls within the scope of your request but was incorrectly omitted from the original response that you received.

This is the only document which I have identified as part of the review process that should have been included in the original response but was not.

I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested in electronic PDF format.

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 202500483645 - Information released - Documents

File type

PDF

File size

726.8 kB