Public health information regarding LED lighting: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request 202500491249

I am requesting all recorded information, from 2005 to the present, held by the Directorate for Population Health or any relevant divisions within the Scottish Government, concerning any public health assessments, consultations, or considerations related to the introduction or rollout of LED lighting in Scotland (street lighting, vehicle lighting, or other public infrastructure).

Please include, but not be limited to:

1. Any correspondence, reports, or advice received from Public Health Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, or NHS bodies regarding health risks or safety of LED lighting.

2. Any internal briefings, memos, or meeting records discussing potential health or wellbeing impacts of LED lighting.

3. Any evidence or assessments considered in national lighting or energy-efficiency policy development.

4. Any records of consultation with Public Health experts or departments prior to the implementation of LED lighting programmes. Please provide the information electronically.

Response

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

I am requesting all recorded information, from 2005 to the present, held by the Directorate for Population Health or any relevant divisions within the Scottish Government, concerning any public health assessments, consultations, or considerations related to the introduction or rollout of LED lighting in Scotland (street lighting, vehicle lighting, or other public infrastructure).

Please include, but not be limited to:

1. Any correspondence, reports, or advice received from Public Health Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, or NHS bodies regarding health risks or safety of LED lighting.

2. Any internal briefings, memos, or meeting records discussing potential health or wellbeing impacts of LED lighting.

3. Any evidence or assessments considered in national lighting or energy-efficiency policy development.

4. Any records of consultation with Public Health experts or departments prior to the implementation of LED lighting programmes. Please provide the information electronically.

I have been asked to re-examine your request, to decide whether the original response should be confirmed, with or without modifications, as appropriate, or a fresh decision be substituted. I can confirm that I was not involved in the handling or decision-making around the original response. I have considered this case and conducted a comprehensive review of the response.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

I can confirm that in reviewing the request we are now releasing information. Please find attached.

In re-evaluating your request and revisiting the searches made, we established that a very small amount of information is held. I have considered the documents in question and can release them under this review.

We are maintaining our reliance on regulation 10(4)(a)(no information held). This is because while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

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. While we recognise that there is public interest in information about the introduction or rollout of LED lighting in Scotland, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

As noted above we are now releasing some information that is held however some information remains exempt from disclosure under the following exception:

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.

As mentioned above, after significant searches it has been established that no other information within the scope of your request is held within any policy areas of Scottish Government. The material I have found that was not found as part of the original case covers advice from a consultant epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland on the possible health impacts of LED street lighting. I have enclosed this information as a separate attachment.

My searches have not found any information covering a Scottish Government led introduction or roll out of LED lighting. As the Scottish Government did not lead a rollout or introduction then it would not have undertaken public health assessments, consultations, or considerations relating to it.

Under our duty to provide advice and assistance it may be useful to know that my searches ascertained that the UK Health Security Agency may hold information on LED lighting that could provide some of the information you are looking for. Contact details are:

• UK Health Security Agency | Contact us
• General enquiries: Enquiries@ukhsa.gov.uk
• Research enquiries: Research.Support@ukhsa.gov.uk

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 202500495516 - Information released - Annex

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