Communication relating to proposed short-term lets licensing scheme: FOI release

Information requested

Any communications (including letters and emails) from members of the public to the Scottish Government that are on the topic of the proposed short-term lets licensing scheme. I would like this information between 08 October 2021 to 31 October 2021.

Response

To answer your question we received a total of 11 emails and letters from the public in relation to shortterm lets between 8 and 31 October 2021. These ranged from:

• 3 questions regarding how to obtain a licence
• 1 question on whether or not they were exempt from the requirement to hold a licence;
• 1 question on whether or not Private Residential Tenancies were excluded from the licensing scheme;
• 4 general concerns about the Licensing Order from short-term let owners; and
• 2 concerns about increased house prices due to high concentrations of short-term lets.

In addition to the 11 emails and letters from the public outlined above, we received a total of 7 emails and letters from organisations and 2 from MSPs in that timeframe which were deemed not to be within the scope of your request.

You may also be aware we issued a response a FoI request earlier this year which asked how much correspondence the Scottish Government had received from outside the organisation regarding the proposed regulation of short term lets. The response to that FOI can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100228786/.

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 exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This exemption 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 exemption.

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.