Publication - FOI/EIR release

Documents for three Oxfam Scotland Projects: EIR release

Published: 9 November 2017
Directorate: External Affairs Directorate
Topic: International, Public sector

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

FOI reference: FOI/17/01899
Date received: 15 August 2017
Date responded: 20 September 2017

Information requested

Copies of full the project documents for the following three Oxfam Scotland Projects: Women farmers access value-chains and adapt to climate change; Social and Economic Empowerment of 19,200 Smallholder Producers in Rural Malawi; and Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods for Vulnerable Groups in the Chiradzulu District'. You subsequently clarified that you wish to receive the 'The narrative proposal; The budget; and Final report' for each of the above projects.

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.

I enclose copies 'The narrative proposal; The budget; and Final report' for each of the above projects, in electronic format, as requested.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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. As such we have redacted any personal information of third parties from the documents released.

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