Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme (Property Figures and Mapping): EIR release

Information requested

‘Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I request the followingBrecorded information held by the Scottish Government:

1. Copies of all submissions, correspondence, and briefings received from East Lothian Council between January 2023 and January 2026 which reference the number of properties:
a) at risk of flooding, and/or
b) expected to benefit from or be protected by the Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme.

2. Any records held by the Scottish Government which were used to inform or assess the scheme and which reference property numbers.
3. Any internal Scottish Government communications or briefings which:
a) refer to property numbers associated with the scheme, or
b) discuss or assess figures provided by East Lothian Council.
4. Any records held by the Scottish Government which explain or support the figure of approximately 3,500 properties referenced by East Lothian Council in or around January 2026.
5) Any maps, plans, or spatial datasets held by the Scottish Government which show:
a) properties identified as being at risk of flooding, and/or
b) properties identified as benefiting from or protected by the scheme.
6. Any GIS data, shapefiles, or equivalent datasets held by the Scottish Government which were used to calculate, visualise, or assess property numbers for the scheme.
7. Any records explaining differences between property figures used in:
a) earlier assessments, and
b) later figures submitted or referenced by East Lothian Council.
8. If the Scottish Government does not hold recorded information explaining how property figures were derived, please confirm this explicitly.

If any of the requested information is already publicly available, please provide direct links to the specific documents.’​​​​​​​

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.

Questions 1 & 3

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

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

Questions 2, 4 & 5

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

Where information is already publicly available I have provided you with the links to the relevant websites below. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

For question 4 of your request, any records held by the Scottish Government which were used to inform or assess the scheme and which reference property numbers are available on the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) website. With regards to questions 5 and 6, The Scottish Government does not hold any other information beyond what is already available on the DPEA and Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme websites. Please find the relevant links below which may be useful:

• Scottish Government - Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA)
• Newsletter Archives - Musselburgh Flood Protection (for maps which identify the number of properties protected).

Lastly, some of the materials within scope of your request have already been provided to you in our response to EIR 202600507161. Therefore, I have withheld them in this instance under Regulation 6(1)(b) to prevent providing you with duplicated information and information that is otherwise easily accessible to you.

Questions 6, 7 & 8

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing this part of your request under the exception at Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

The Scottish Government does not have the software to support GIS data, shapefiles or equivalent datasets that you referenced in question 6 of your request.

With regards to questions 7 and 8, The Scottish Government does not hold any information explaining differences between property figures used in earlier assessments or figures later referenced by East Lothian Council. I can therefore confirm explicitly that The Scottish Government does not hold recorded information explaining how property figures were derived.

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 may be some public interest in information relating to property figures and the Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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 202600511366 - Information Released - Annex

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