The number of hectares of Peatlands that have been repaired or rejuvenated since September 2021: EIR release

Information requested

How many hectares (or acres) of Peatlands have been repaired or rejuvenated in Scotland in the period 1 September 2021 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.

The Scottish Government gathers data on peatland restoration carried out each financial year in hectares (ha) by our delivery partners including Peatland Action (NatureScot), Forestry Land Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and Scottish Water. This data does not, however, reflect peatland restoration work carried out across Scotland that is not funded from
public resources.

For 2020-21, the total number restored was 5,658ha.
For 2021-22, the total number restored was 5,370ha.
More recent data up until the 9 August 2022 will be available at the end of the 2022-23 financial year.

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.