Correspondence relating to the delay to the muirburn licensing scheme: EIR release

Information requested

Please can I request the following information:

1. Any correspondence sent to or from Jim Fairlie relating to the delay to the muirburn licensing scheme until the start of the 2026 season.

2. Any correspondence sent to or from Siobhian Brown relating to the delay to the muirburn licensing scheme until the start of the 2026 season.

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.

Question 1 & 2: Correspondence sent to or from Jim Fairlie and Siobhian Brown relating to the delay to the muirburn licensing scheme

I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.

On reviewing materials within scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.

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 202500488610 - Information Released - Annex A and Annex B

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