Tay Forest National Park bid: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
A copy of all correspondence conducted between Ms Lorna Slater, Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity (including all staff in her department), and Provost Xander McDade from Perth & Kinross Council (including all staff in Perth & Kinross Council involved in the Tay Forest Bid) in respect of the proposal that the Tay Forest area of Perthshire might become the next National Park in Scotland.
That is: all emails, WhatsApp messages, text messages, meetings appointments,minutes/recordings of all meetings and visits between them, between 1st January2021 and today - 6th April 2024.
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 theinformation 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.
I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.
On reviewing materials within scope of your request, an exception have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exception applied can be found in Annex A.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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