Digital waste tracking: EIR release

Information requested

“How much money has been spent on the Scottish Government looking into mandatory digital waste tracking over the last five years, with a breakdown of each year and what the money has been spent on”?
“How many consultations has the government published about this topic and similar policies on mandatory digital waste tracking over the last ten years, with a list of these”?
“All briefings prepared for ministers regarding mandatory digital waste tracking between January 2023 and the date of this FOI”.

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 exception 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 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, 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.

Question 1

The Scottish Government has spent a total of £98,286.67 over the period specified in your request in regards to mandatory digital waste tracking. I have also provided a breakdown of said expenditure over the last five years below for your convenience:

• 2019/20 - £0 2020/21 - £0
• 2021/22 – £97,844 (Transfer to Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for additional staff time) + £442.67 (Publication of Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment alongside 4- nation’s consultation).
• 2022/23 – £0
• 2023/24 - £0

Please note, this is only the funding provided by the Scottish Government directly for Digital Waste Tracking. It does not include any of the Grant in Aid funding directed by SEPA to Digital Waste Tracking: SEPA determines the amount of resources allocated to meeting their statutory obligations through their Annual Operating Plan in each year in agreement with the Scottish Government.

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 10(4)(a) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because Civil Servants operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their 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 provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by Civil Servants involved with Digital Waste Tracking.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the cost of time spent on this policy area by civil servants, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.

Question 2

The Scottish Government has published three consultations that includes mandatory digital waste tracking in the last ten years. A list of these can be found below for your convenience:

• Making Things Last: Consultation on creating a more circular economy in Scotland - Scottish Government Consultations - Citizen Space
• Introduction on mandatory digital waste tracking - Defra - Citizen Space
• Supporting documents - Delivering Scotland's circular economy - route map to 2025 and beyond: consultation - gov.scot

You may also wish to note that the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has also conducted a separate consultation on digital waste tracking which can be found here.

Question 3

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested as no specific briefings on the topic of mandatory digital waste tracking have been prepared for ministers in the period specified in your request.

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.

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.