Scottish Forestry 'Economic Impact of Forest Based Activities in Scotland' report queries: EIR release

Information requested

1. I would like to make a FOI request in relation to the 'Economic Impact of Forest Based Activities in Scotland' report, prepared by Stantec and others for Scottish Forestry.

On page nine of this report, it refers to 2019 as the year for which an estimate of forestry's contribution to Scotland's economy is made.

​​​​​​​When the original tender and report proposal documents were issued by Scottish Forestry to invite prospective organisations to submit tenders to carry out research and publish this report, did Scottish Forestry stipulate a suggested methodology for calculating the 'Gross Value Added' (GVA) metric? If yes, please provide this methodology.

​​​​​​​2. Did Scottish Forestry later (at post-tender agreement and/or after contract being signed stage) stipulate the suggested methodology for calculating the 'Gross Value Added' (GVA) metric? If yes, please provide this methodology.

​​​​​​​3. Did Scottish Forestry explain to prospective, and later approved researchers (for the report), that various forestry or forestry related sectors receives sizeable taxpayer funding (either directly or indirectly) under the Forestry Grant Scheme (and any other taxpayer funded schemes), and provide a figure of all the taxpayer funded grant funding awarded to the forestry industry for 2019, and/or payments that would be paid as a result of payment commitments in 2019 and previous years? If so, please provide the data that Scottish Forestry provided to the researchers in respect of this.

4. Did Scottish Forestry require the report (published by Stantec and others) to take into account the taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA for its report? If not, why not?

5. Does the final, published report 'Economic Impact of Forest Based Activities in Scotland' demonstrate or provide evidence that Stantec (and other authors) have or have not included taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA figures for the now published report?

6. Did Stantec (and the other authors) include taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA figures for the now published report? If yes, what was the size of grant funding used for calculating the 2019 GVA? If taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies were not used in calculating the GVA figures, why was this?​​​​​​​

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.

We have responded to your request as numbered above.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Response to your request

​​​​​​​1. I would like to make a FOI request in relation to the 'Economic Impact of Forest Based Activities in Scotland' report, prepared by Stantec and others for Scottish Forestry.
On page nine of this report, it refers to 2019 as the year for which an estimate of forestry's contribution to Scotland's economy is made.

• When the original tender and report proposal documents were issued by Scottish Forestry to invite prospective organisations to submit tenders to carry out research and publish this report, did Scottish Forestry stipulate a suggested methodology for calculating the 'Gross Value Added' (GVA) metric? If yes, please provide this methodology.

The Invitation to Tender is attached, within document 1. ‘Economic impact study - Terms of Reference V2’, and contains all the methodological requirements that were provided to bidders for the study.

2. Did Scottish Forestry later (at post-tender agreement and/or after contract being signed stage) stipulate the suggested methodology for calculating the 'Gross Value Added' (GVA) metric? If yes, please provide this methodology.

The methodology was discussed at the set-up meeting between the consultants and the steering group – see attached note on the set-up meeting – but these discussions focussed on the scope (i.e. activities) covered by the study rather than how GVA should be calculated. The study did not specify a different definition of GVA to that which is widely used by economists.

3. Did Scottish Forestry explain to prospective, and later approved researchers (for the report), that various forestry or forestry related sectors receives sizeable taxpayer funding (either directly or indirectly) under the Forestry Grant Scheme (and any other taxpayer funded schemes), and provide a figure of all the taxpayer funded grant funding awarded to the forestry industry for 2019, and/or payments that would be paid as a result of payment commitments in 2019 and previous years? If so, please provide the data that Scottish Forestry provided to the researchers in respect of this.

Scottish Forestry did not provide data on grant funding under the Forestry Grant Scheme, but the consultants were aware of the funding that the forest sector receives. The consultants gathered the necessary data for the study through a survey of the sector (see attached Company survey) and secondary data from the Interdepartmental Business Register (IDBR) and the Experian National Business Database (ENBD). It should be noted that GVA, by definition captures the producer’s revenue and therefore includes any funding.

4. Did Scottish Forestry require the report (published by Stantec and others) to take into account the taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA for its report? If not, why not?

As noted above, grants are included in GVA calculations.

5. Does the final, published report 'Economic Impact of Forest Based Activities in Scotland' demonstrate or provide evidence that Stantec (and other authors) have or have not included taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA figures for the now published report?

As explained above, GVA represents what producers receive for their output. It, therefore, includes subsidies on products (the money the government pays producers).

​​​​​​​6. Did Stantec (and the other authors) include taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies in calculating the GVA figures for the now published report? If yes, what was the size of grant funding used for calculating the 2019 GVA? If taxpayer funded grants and any other public subsidies were not used in calculating the GVA figures, why was this?

The value of grants were picked up in the turnover data collected in the survey, and in the turnover data taken from the IDBR and ENBD. Therefore, public grants were included in the GVA calculations.

Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request.

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 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to [some of] the information you have requested. Please see Annex A for the reason(s) this/these exception(s) apply.

ANNEX A

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Personal data relating to third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.​​​​​​​

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 202500495388 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

473.5 kB