Future Farming Investment Scheme: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for:

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I would be grateful if you could comply with the following request:

Please provide the number of applications to the Future Farming Investment Scheme that were rejected, broken down by (a) area office, (b) the total value applied for that was rejected, linked to each office, and (c) the farm/croft size (30 hectares or less, between 30.01-150, greater than 150).

For example, the stakeholder information pack shows 4 grant offers were made to businesses falling under the Stornoway Office. I would like to know how many other businesses were unsuccessful here, the total value (the amount of support applicants applied for) of the unsuccessful applications connected to the Stornoway Office, and the farm/croft size of the unsuccessful applicants.

How many of the successful applicants to the Future Farming Investment Scheme had a farm/croft size of (a) 30 hectares or less, (b) between 30.01-150 hectares, and (c) greater than 150 hectares,broken down by area office.

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.

Response to your request

Rejected Applications by Area Office

Area Office	Total Number of Applications Failing One or More Eligibility/Scheme Requirement Checks	Grant Value	Number Small (<30ha)	Number Medium (>30ha/<150ha)	Number Large (>150ha)
Ayr	354	£3,942,374.84	51	157	146
Benbecula	137	£674,380.32	96	37	4
Dumfries	245	£3,170,382.74	26	94	125
Elgin	82	£938,181.10	15	29	38
Galashiels	353	£4,133,725.29	41	85	227
Golspie	104	£474,169.06	55	33	16
Hamilton	121	£1,580,528.01	26	44	51
Inverness	261	£2,069,611.69	103	72	86
Inverurie	458	£5,499,236.99	101	184	173
Kirkwall	127	£1,528,982.34	26	67	34
Lerwick	144	£764,586.06	48	55	41
Oban	208	£2,215,510.72	41	70	97
Perth	467	£5,166,415.33	61	150	256
Portree	142	£602,599.83	98	29	15
Stornoway	168	£425,996.38	132	34	2
Thurso	166	£1,390,710.72	59	72	35
Total	3,537	£34,577,391.42	979	1,212	1,346

Grant Offers by Area Office

Area Office	Number Successful Small (<30ha)	Number Successful Medium (>30ha/<150ha)	Number Successful Large (>150ha)
Ayr	16	119	133
Benbecula	9	3	2
Dumfries	5	67	96
Elgin	4	30	26
Galashiels	9	37	123
Golspie	1	5	6
Hamilton	10	38	48
Inverness	9	20	35
Inverurie	30	150	138
Kirkwall	9	24	29
Lerwick	12	27	20
Oban	9	21	29
Perth	11	96	145
Portree	3	0	3
Stornoway	1	1	2
Thurso	5	22	34
Total	143	660	869

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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.