Midlothian Council’s application to the Scottish Government Recycling Improvement Fund information: FOI release

Information requested

Zero Waste Scotland awarded Midlothian Council a grant of £2,322,042 from the Scottish Government's Recycling Improvement Fund for the project described as "Transition to twin-stream collection service and reduced frequency of residual waste for kerbside and communal properties." The grant was accepted by Midlothian Council at its full Council meeting on 19 December 2023, and the service launched on 23 March 2026.

I understand that the Recycling Improvement Fund application process requires applications to be assessed against six weighted criteria — evidence-led; impact and transformation; strategic and collaborative; feasibility; acceptability; and additionality — and that both a financial evaluation and a communications evaluation are carried out as part of the assessment.

The rollout experienced a number of difficulties at launch, including bins not delivered to all households by the go-live date, the council's website failing under demand, missed collections, and an absence of any resident-facing communications during the 25-month period between the funding decision and go-live.

I am seeking information to understand how Midlothian Council's application was assessed, what was required of them under the grant, and what post-award monitoring has taken place.

Information Requested

The Assessment

1: A copy of the Application Assessment Panel's scoring of Midlothian Council's application against each of the six weighted criteria, including scores awarded and any commentary recorded.

2: A copy of the financial evaluation carried out as part of the assessment.

3: A copy of the communications evaluation carried out as part of the assessment.

4: The date the application was received, the date it was assessed, and the date the funding decision was communicated to Midlothian Council.

5: Any conditions, caveats or recommendations attached to the funding award by the panel or the RIF Board.

Collaboration and Partners

6: Details of any partner organisations identified in Midlothian Council's application under the "strategic and collaborative" criterion, including any named contractors, neighbouring councils or other bodies.

7: The name of the Zero Waste Scotland Recycling Partner assigned to support Midlothian Council's application development.

Post-Award Monitoring

8: Copies of any progress reports, monitoring returns or milestone updates submitted by Midlothian Council to Zero Waste Scotland under the grant agreement, from the date of award to 25 March 2026.

9: Any correspondence between Zero Waste Scotland and Midlothian Council regarding the progress or readiness of the project between December 2023 and March 2026.

10: Whether Midlothian Council has met the reporting and milestone requirements attached to the grant and, if not, what action Zero Waste Scotland has taken or intends to take.

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.

Request for information regarding Midlothian Council’s application to the Scottish Government Recycling Improvement Fund

Question 1

I have included a copy of the information you have requested in the attached Annex (B).

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, an exception has been applied in line with the EIRs. The exception applied can be found in the attached Annex (A).

Question 2

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, an exception under Regulation 10(5)(f) (third party interests) applies to the information you have requested, namely financial information in relation to Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund. 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in releasing the information as part of an open, transparent and accountable government.

However, disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of said information and the interests of those providing information to the Scottish Government in confidence.

Question 3

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested as we do not hold a copy of any communications evaluation in relation to Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as part of the response to your request we have conducted a search of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system and have been unable to locate the information requested. I would also note that a search request was submitted to Scottish Government Officials which also resulted in no information being identified that would be within the scope of your request.

You may wish to submit a request to either Midlothian Council and/or Zero Waste Scotland as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 4

I can confirm that Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund (RIF) was received on 5 September 2023 and considered by the RIF Board on 27 September 2023 who
approved the recommendation to fund the project.

With regard to the date that the funding decision would have been communicated to Midlothian Council, I can confirm that the Scottish Government does not hold this information. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

You may wish to submit a request to either Midlothian Council and/or Zero Waste Scotland as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 5

No additional conditions, caveats or recommendations were attached to Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund (RIF) by the RIF Board.

Question 6

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested as we have not been able to identify any partner organisations as being listed within the "strategic and collaborative" section of Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

You may wish to submit a request to either Midlothian Council and/or Zero Waste Scotland as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 7

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, an exception under Regulation 11(2) (personal data) applies to the information you have requested, in this instance the name of the Zero Waste Scotland partner assigned to support Midlothian Councils application development, as this would be personal information and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and in Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’.

Questions 8 & 10

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested as we do not receive copies of progress reports, monitoring returns and/or milestone updates nor potential compliance actions undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland in relation to Midlothian Council’s application to the Recycling Improvement Fund.

Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as part of the response to your request we have conducted a search of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system and have been unable to locate the information requested. I would also note that a search request was submitted to Scottish Government Officials which also resulted in no information being identified that would be within the scope of your request.

You may wish to submit a request to either Midlothian Council and/or Zero Waste Scotland as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 9

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested as we do not hold copies of correspondence between Zero Waste Scotland and Midlothian Council regarding Midlothian Council’s readiness in relation to their "Transition to twin-stream collection service and reduced frequency of residual waste for kerbside and communal properties." project. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as part of the response to your request we have conducted a search of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system and have been unable to locate the information requested. I would also note that a search request was submitted to Scottish Government Officials which also resulted in no information being identified that would be within the scope of your request.

You may wish to submit a request to either Midlothian Council and/or Zero Waste Scotland as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

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 202600512652 - Information Released - Annex A and Annex B

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