Permitted Development Rights review - phase 3: consultation: EIR release

Information requested

Information relating to section 6.2 of the public consultation on Phase 3 of the Scottish Government’s review of permitted development rights.

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.

Response

Question 1

A list of organisations and representatives invited by Scottish Government to meeting on 14th June 2023 to ascertain the potential impact on shooting activities along with a list of anyone else present at the meeting and in what capacity they were attending. If the above invitees did not include the United Kingdom Practical Association (the relevant sports discipline governing body) the reason why this organisation was not invited to attend.

The Scottish Government did not hold such a meeting on 14 June 2023. However, I can confirm that a meeting did take place on 13 June 2023, at the request of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), who wanted to discuss section 6.2 of the consultation in order to advise their members. An official from BASC and an official from Scottish Target Shooting (invited by BASC) were in attendance. The introduction to the consultation document states (paragraph 1.1.3) “If you have any questions about this consultation you can get in touch at Planning.PDR3@gov.scot".This is what the BASC did and it is open to other organisations to do the same.

Question 2-3

Please can you provide a list of the individuals and organisations that have expressed concerns to Scottish Government about the use of "temporary firing ranges comprising the provision of fixed targets associated with the use of firearms"

Please can you provide a copy of any correspondence between you and these individuals and/or organisations

On data protection grounds, Scottish Government cannot provide a list of those who have expressed such concerns (Regulation 11(2) of the EIRs). I have, however, provided copies of correspondence between Scottish Government and individuals and/or organisations, subject to the following exceptions, and text has been redacted in line with the following exceptions.

Regulation 11(2) - data protection

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some the information requested 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.

Regulation 10(5)(f) – substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information

An exception under regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of organisations who provided that information to the Scottish Government. They:

• were not under any legal obligation to give us that information;
• did not supply it in circumstances in which it could, apart from the EIRs, be made available; and
• have not consented to disclosure.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the interests of organisations who provide the Scottish Government with information on a confidential basis. Disclosing such information against the express wishes of the stakeholder is likely to undermine their trust in the Government and make them reluctant in future to share information with us on issues such as PDR policy. This would significantly impair the Scottish Government’s ability to develop policies and make decisions on the basis of fully informed advice and evidence. This would not be in the public interest.

Questions 4 and 5

Please can you provide a copy of any research or evidence submitted by individuals, organisations or Scottish Government to support the concerns raised about the potential disruption and amenity impacts.

Please can you provide details of any formal complaints that have been made from the general public about disruption and amenity impacts of temporary firing ranges comprising fixed targets.

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

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 around any research or evidence on the potential disruption and amenity impacts, or any formal complaints, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Complaints about statutory nuisances, such as noise disturbance, as well as alleged breaches of planning control are made to the relevant local authority. Local authorities may therefore hold the information you have requested.

As you will see from the information released in response to your second question, we received correspondence from a range of individuals and organisations expressing concerns about a specific shooting ranges in Dumfries and Galloway. Such concerns also led to a petition to the Scottish Parliament requesting the introduction of legislation to create artillery and firearms exclusion zones around places of spiritual importance and religious worship. This had 10,290 signatures.

Question 6

Please can you provide information as to why only fixed target shooting is included in the proposed exemption

Your question is made in reference to an extract from paragraph 6.2.3 of the consultation. The same paragraph of the consultation goes on to state that: "in many instances, such activities [i.e. game shooting etc] carried out on a temporary basis may not constitute 'development' under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. In those cases, planning permission is not required - whether granted via PDR or following a planning application".

Under regulation 6 (1) (b) of EIRs, we are not required to provide information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR - 202300364088 - Information release

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