Correspondence pertaining to pandas at Edinburgh Zoo: EIR release

Information requested

All correspondence and information including but not limited to documents, reports, calls logged, notes of meetings and emails between Scottish Government and Edinburgh Zoo/RZSS in relation to the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo. I am looking for this information for dates from
16/03/2021 up until today’s date (31/08/2021) or more recent (when this information is being collated). This would include permits, inspections and licences. Or incident investigations.

All correspondence and information including but not limited to documents, reports, calls logged, notes of meetings and emails between Edinburgh Council and Scottish Government in relation to the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo. I am looking for this information for dates from 16/03/2021 up until today’s date (31/08/2021) or more recent (as above). This would include permits, inspections and licences. Or incident investigations.

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 attach a copy of some of the information you 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 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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception(s) under regulation(s) Regulation 10(5)(a) (International Relations) of the EIRs applies to that information. This exemption applies where the disclosure of information would, or would likely cause, prejudice to international relations.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in the effective conduct of international relations.

An exemption under regulation 10(5)(f) of EIRS applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of the information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of an organisation that has voluntarily provided that information to
the Scottish Government.

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, and to help account for public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of an organisation or company which voluntarily provided information which is particularly sensitive at the present time.

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.

FOI 202100234796 - Information released

File type

28 page PDF

File size

1.1 MB