Galloway Field restructuring information: EIR release

Information requested

1. An update on three fields (grid references NX 627 480, NX 625 475 & NX 624 473)
2. Clarification on why permission for a new gateway was not on the agricultural Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) public register
3. A release of all of our correspondence with the land owner about the recent works
4. An explanation of how allowing field restructuring is contributing to Scotland's biodiversity goals.

Response

Taking the questions in order:

1. Following our response on 30 March 2026 you have requested a further update. Our staff visited the holding again and visited the specific locations you referred to and appropriate action was taken.

2. Permission was granted under cross compliance conditions for the new field entrance therefore we have not added it to the EIA public register because it was deemed not to be part of the EIA project. This is because the EIA project was field restructuring involving the re-profiling of knowes, whereas the new field entrance involved removing a very small length of dyke and was submitted and considered separately to and after the EIA screening request.

3. Some correspondence between RPID and the farmer concerned is already available on the EIA public register. However, for any other correspondence between RPID and the farmer, an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIR (personal information) applies 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.

The exception has been applied based on information provided by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) - "information about companies or public authorities is not personal information. However, information about individuals acting as sole traders, employees, partners and company directors where they are individually identifiable and the information relates to them as an individual may constitute personal data" - What is personal information: a guide | ICO

4. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a procedure for considering the potential environmental impacts of land use change. EIA helps to inform decision making and enables decisions on land use change to be taken with knowledge of the likely environmental consequences. The main aim is to protect land which has natural heritage, historical or environmental value of importance. Land managers should seek approval from the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division before carrying out certain projects (e.g. ploughing of unimproved land, drainage of wetlands or restructuring of agricultural land) if these projects are likely to have significant effects on the environment. Restructuring of fields is therefore assessed in that context and does not necessarily mean that any and all restructuring proposals are therefore to be rejected.

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.