Activities of the Scottish Raptor Study Group: EIR release

Information requested

"Please can you clarify whether (a) there was a meeting between the Minister and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association on 25 June 2024 to discuss the activities of the Scottish Raptor Study Group (re: licensed visits to raptor nests for monitoring purposes) and if so (b) is there a record of what was discussed?"

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.

A meeting between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Gamekeeper Association did take place on 25 June 2024 during which licensed visits to raptors nests for monitoring purposes was not discussed during the meeting. As licensed visits to raptor nests were not discussed during the meeting, the record of what was discussed falls outwith of scope of your request.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.