Licensing conditions for the Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG): EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
Earlier this year (around May, I think), the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) sent you a report entitled 'Who Monitors the Monitors?', which focused on the activities of the Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG). The SGA was seeking an additional licensing condition for SRSG members which would require them to inform land managers prior to monitoring a Schedule 1 nest site.
Please can you provide copies of any response that the Scottish Government and/or any Minister has provided to the SGA on the basis of its report/request for further licensing conditions, and any further correspondence between the Scottish Government and/or any Ministers, NatureScot, and the SGA on this issue.
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.
Response to your request
Information has been identified within the scope of your request and I have included this in Annex B of this letter.
On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions 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 Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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