Publication - FOI/EIR release

Weed control near Candybank Farm, Carstairs and A702: EIR release

Published: 11 October 2017
Directorate: Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate
Topic: Farming and rural, Public sector

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

FOI reference: FOI/17/02094
Date received: 13 September 2017
Date responded: 9 October 2017

Information requested

Weed control at ground adjacent to Newbridge Farm Carstairs and ground adjacent to Candybank Farm, Carstairs and A702.

Information sought:

The correspondence to include all emails, letters, fax transmissions, notes, photographs, meeting notes, telephone calls and minutes of meetings.

The relevant period is from 1st January 2017 to the present day.

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.

Please find enclosed some of the information you have 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.

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