Funds transferred to Dumfries and Galloway Council in regard to flood defence works: EIR release

Information requested

For the year 2024 to 2026, finance funds transferred or sent to Dumfries and Galloway Council in regard flood defence works/project in Dumfries town/river nith.

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 finance funds sent to Dumfries and Galloway Council in relation to flood defence works

The Scottish Government has provided a total of £28.6 million in funding for the financial years 2024/25 (6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025) and 2025/26 (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026) to Dumfries and Galloway Council for the River Nith/Whitesands Flood Protection Scheme as part of the councils General Capital Grant. No funding has been allocated for the 2026/27 financial year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) as of the date of your request.

Dumfries and Galloway Council have published further information regarding the Whitesands Flood Protection Scheme that you may find helpful which can be found here.

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.