Information regarding Ramsar Policy: EIR release

Information requested

“I refer to the Scottish Government's (SG's) response (attached) to my EIRs information request ref. 202500483073. Thank you for the SG's prompt, full and helpful reply.

I now write to request further information under the EIRs or FOISA as appropriate, beyond the scope of my earlier request but arising from the email chain disclosed (as Annex B) in response. In respect of:

1. the three individuals, all with "gov.scot" email addresses, to whom the Biodiversity Team Policy Manager's email dated 28 July 2025 was copied, and

2. any other individuals at SG, to whom Environmental Standards Scotland's email of 12 August 2025 was addressed or copied, not mentioned above, please supply and, in due course, publish the following information:

1. the names of the Scottish Government (SG) Directorate(s) which these individuals represent,

2. and preferably also the job titles of these individuals.”

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 additional information in relation to Scottish Government officials associated with documents released as part of EIR response 202500483073

Question 1

The Directorates are:

• Directorate for Environment and Forestry
• Directorate for Planning, Architecture and Regeneration.

Question 2
The job titles are:

• Biodiversity Team Leader
• Senior Planner
• Policy Officer

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.