Contaminated Land Advisory Group: FOI release

Information requested

1. What date was the Contaminated Land Advisory Group formed?

2. What is the total cost of this group to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23?

3. Is there any catering cost associated to this group? If so what is it?

4. Are members remunerated in any way?

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.

1. What date was the Contaminated Land Advisory Group formed?
The Contaminated Land Advisory Group held its first meeting on 20 May 2010.

2. What is the total cost of this group to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23?
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested as the only costs associated with the Contaminated Land Advisory Group have been staff time.

It may help if I explain that Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to say specifically how much time has been spent and the subsequent cost involved with work on the Contaminated Land Advisory Board.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

3. Is there any catering cost associated to this group? If so what is it?
I can confirm that there have been catering costs associated to the Contaminated Land Advisory Group.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested, and it is not possible to state exact catering costs associated to the Contaminated Land Advisory Group. Therefore we are refusing this request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

It may help for me to explain that records of expenditure are retained in accordance with Annex 2 of the Scottish Public Finance Manual Annex 2: retention of financial records - Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). I can confirm that the most recent meeting of the Contaminated Land Advisory group (the first since 2019), was held in person in August 2023, with associated catering costs of £43.80. However, this cannot be assumed to be a representative figure for any previous or future meetings held by the group. Prior to this, the Contaminated Land Advisory Group had not met since 2019, and records pertaining to catering costs are therefore not available.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

4. Are members remunerated in any way?
The Scottish Government does not provide any remuneration to external members of the Contaminated Land Advisory Group. Additionally, the Scottish Government does not remunerate staff members in any way for participation in the group over and above standard staff salaries.

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.