XL Bully dog correspondence and research spend: EIR release

Information requested

1. All briefings prepared for ministers, notes, correspondence received and sent by the government, including internally, about the UK Government’s Bully XL ban between September 1 2023 and the date of this information request (13 December 2023).

2. Can you supply all of the research the Scottish government has undertaken so far on the ban, including experts talked to and minutes from these meetings?

3. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on this research into a potential ban on the Bully XL plus breakdown of these costs?

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.

Given the volume and complexity of the information requested, we have up to 40 working days under EIRs to respond as it was impractical to deal with the request more quickly.

I attach a response to your request for information, with Annexes containing much of the information.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested as an annex. Please note that the numbering of the documents collated in Annexes B and C correspond. (These annexes comprise public enquiries received, and responses sent, about XL bully dogs, by SG, respectively.)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we have redacted, or otherwise excluded, some of the information you have requested. This is because of exceptions under Regulation 10(4)(e) (internal communications), Regulation 10(5) (Prejudice to Interests of Person who Provided the Information), and Regulation 11(2) (personal data). The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

In addition to seeking information under EIRs, you ask the following:

Can you supply all of the research the Scottish government has undertaken so far on the ban, including experts talked to and minutes from these meetings?

Please find in the attached documents details of various experts and stakeholders consulted by the Scottish Government on the topics of ‘dangerous dogs’ and XL bully dogs. Minutes for these meetings, within the specified time period, are included in Annex F. We continue to engage with a range stakeholders and experts, as the new rules are implemented. Information has also been received and considered from members of the public and other interested parties. This is included in Annex B.

Further information can be found at

XL Bully dogs in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
XL Bully dog safeguards coming into force - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

How much money has the Scottish Government spent on this research into a potential ban on the Bully XL plus breakdown of these costs?

The Scottish Government has incurred staff costs in assessing policy on XL Bully dogs. This staff cannot be quantified as the staff members involved also had other duties. No specific cost has arisen from research that has been commissioned by the Scottish Government.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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 202300389229 - Information Released - Annex

File type

123 page PDF

File size

948.7 kB