House fund and New Deal for Business Group: EIR release

Information requested

1. Out of the £60m fund to acquire empty and private sector homes announced by Humza Yousaf in July, how much of this money has been utilised or drawn out already, and breakdown of where it has gone;

2. For all correspondence received and sent by the Scottish Government, and any briefings prepared for Ministers, regarding concerns about 15 minutes cities and towns between 1 May 2023 and the 31 October 2023;

3. For details of all meetings held by New Deal for Business Group, including minutes/notes from them all and list of attendees;

4. How much progress has been made by the Scottish Government in its aim to reduce private car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030, including any analysis done by the Scottish Government this year on whether this will be hit, and any Ministerial briefings in 2023.

Response

As questions 2 and 4 of your request are ‘environmental information’, for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with these elements of 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 these parts of 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 these parts of your request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request. Therefore, questions 1 and 3 will be handled under FOISA, and questions 2 and 4 will be handled under the EIRs. I will deal with each of your requests in turn.

I enclose a table detailing actual spend draw down relating to the National Acquisition Programme, split by Local Authority from 1 April 2023 to 31 October 2023, which should satisfy your first request.

In response to your second request, we received a number of responses to our Local Living and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods: Draft Planning Guidance consultation which highlighted concerns regarding 15 Minute Cities. The responses to this consultation have now been published and can be access through the following link - https://consult.gov.scot/planning-architecture/draft-local-living-and-20-minuteneighbourhoods/consultation/published_select_respondent . Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

I also enclose a copy of an email exchange between officials on the 2 October 2023 and the attached document with lines to take regarding concerns with 15 Minute Cities. 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 under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies. The reason why this exception applies is explained in the Annex to this letter. Some of the information has also been withheld as this is not within the scope of the request.

In response to your third request for ‘All meetings held by New Deal for Business Group, including minutes/notes from them all and list of attendees’, all of the information you have requested is available from the following link – https://www.gov.scot/groups/business-new-deal-for-business-group/. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

I also enclose a number of documents which should satisfy your fourth request. Due to the number of documents I have consolidated these as one attachment for ease. 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 exceptions under regulations 11(2) (personal information), 10(4)(e), and 10(4) (d) (material in the course of completion, unfinished documents, or incomplete data) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Finally, for ease I enclose a schedule which sets out which documents satisfy which parts of your
request.

I hope you find this information helpful.

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exception applies

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested in your second and fourth requests 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.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested in your fourth request. Regulation 10(4)(e) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) allows a Scottish public authority to withhold internal communications. The exception applies here because the information requested is part of internal communication between departments and ministers.

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, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide free and frank advice and views to Ministers and other departments to ensure that policy work is informed and productive.

The information withheld discusses policy which is in development and could be misinterpreted by the public and disclosure at this stage would inhibit our ability to work and engage with early policy in an unbiased and free manner. Disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

Some information requested in your fourth request has been withheld under regulations 10(4)(d) (material in the course of completion, unfinished documents, or incomplete data). 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 some public interest in releasing the information as part of an open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the greater public interest in allowing a private space for officials and ministers to consider draft content for the purpose of free and frank deliberation. The information withheld discusses policy which is in development and could be misinterpreted by the public and disclosure at this stage would inhibit our ability to work and engage with early policy in an unbiased and free manner. Disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

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.

EIR 202300383018 - Information Released - Annex

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