Scottish Forestry - Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening opinion workflow and internal documents regarding Carlinden Burn: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. All internal documents, checklists, screening drafts, technical assessments or preparatory materials relating to the EIA screening opinion for Carlinden Burn.
2. All correspondence (internal and external) referring to the timing, preparation or anticipated date of the screening opinion.
3. Any internal notes discussing the PR being used prior to screening and the rationale for this deviation from usual process.
4. Any instructions or advice from senior staff regarding how to handle the sequencing of PR → hydrology revisions → screening for this case.
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.
Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data 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. As such, some data has been redacted. 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.
An exception under Regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (Confidentiality of commercial information in relation to private water supplies - PWS) applies to some of the requested information because it relates to information supplied to the Conservancy and the Scottish Forestry’s National Office in its role as a regulator by members of the community, the applicant or other public bodies, revealing the exact location of private water supplies (PWS), which are vulnerable to disruption or pollution. This exception is subject to the public interest test, and we have a statutory obligation to apply it.
Under Regulation 10(5)(e), I assumed disclosure when applying the exception and weighed the public interest in either maintaining or disclosing the information. Although we recognise there may be public interest in releasing all the information, I have concluded that, on balance, the public interest supports upholding the exception, as disclosing this specific type of information would have an adverse effect not only on the economic interests of the applicant but also on others, since households depend on these supplies. Therefore, it is crucial to protect them from the impacts of land use changes and forestry operations.
Where this exemption applies, information has either been redacted or withheld completely where redaction is unable to prevent disclosure of the location of private water supplies.
As you will see from the schedule attached in Annex A, an exception under 10 (5) (g) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) applies to some of the documents. This exception allows a Scottish public authority to withhold environmental information if its disclosure would or would likely cause substantial prejudice to the protection of the environment. I decided to uphold this exception, as well as the exception 10 (5) (e) of the EIRs (commercial confidentiality), as explained in detail in Annex A below.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG