Information relating to proposed regulation of short term lets: FOI release

Information requested

How much correspondence has the Scottish Government received from outside the organisation regarding the proposed regulation of short term lets?

Copies of the above correspondence where it exists.

Response

Ahead of answering your request, it may help if I explain that correspondence to the Scottish Government is received from multiple sources such as case management systems (MiCase, formally MACCS), officials' personal mailboxes and shared mailboxes (shorttermlets@gov.scot).

To give you an idea of the level of correspondence received regarding short-term lets since January 2020, the point when the Scottish Government announced proposals for the regulation of short-term lets, we have received over 600 individual items of correspondence relating to short-term lets from outside the organisation via our case management system, MiCase. Our short-term lets mailbox contains over 1,400 emails.

You may also be aware the Scottish Government has also conducted 3 public consultations on shortterm lets, each receiving over 1,000 responses. Details on each consultation, including published responses for the 2019 and 2020 consultations, can be found here:

• Short-Term Lets: Consultation - Scottish Government - Citizen Space
• Short Term Lets: Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas in Scotland - Scottish Government - Citizen Space
• Short Term Lets: Consultation on draft Licensing Order and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) - Scottish Government - Citizen Space

In relation to the second part of your request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Your request would involve an extensive and detailed search across multiple correspondence sources to establish every email that officials’ have received from outside of the organisation regarding short-term lets. As we have already identified somewhere in the region of 2,000 pieces of correspondence, the time to consider which ones are in scope would be considerable and, bearing in mind that many (certainly those from members of the public) would require redaction to protect personal privacy, it would exceed the cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

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.