Correspondence relating to the decision to reduce Single Species Threshold: EIR release

Information requested

Please can you provide all correspondence between Scottish Forestry officials and officials from the Forestry Commission relating to the decision in the new five-year forestry standard to reduce the maximum percentage for a single species in a new forest from 75 to 65 per cent.

I am particularly interested to see discussions around the potential to lower this further -- to 50 per cent -- and why this more ambitious target was not pursued.

The correspondence should include emails, letters, texts and messages on instant messaging services like Whatsapp.

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.

Response to your request

Correspondence documents have been attached.

Linked below you will find the published report of the 2nd stakeholder consultation which summarises the range of views about the percentage threshold and the evidence submitted by stakeholders in support of their views.

UK Forestry Standard: draft updated content - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space

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 data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested. This information has been redacted on the requested correspondence.

For further detail on the application of this exception, please see Annex A below.

ANNEX A

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Personal data relating to third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some the information requested 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.

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.

FOI 202400408157 - Information Released - Annex

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