Status of flood defence schemes included in Flood Risk Management Strategies: EIR release

Information requested

“The following questions under FOI are with regard to the status of the nation’s 42 flood defence schemes, which were included in the 2015-2021 Flood Risk Management Strategies.

1. How many have been completed?
2. What is the cost today of all the works that have been carried out.
3. How many schemes are still to be completed, what are they, and can you spell out when they are to be completed.
4. What were the 42 schemes, how many properties would it protect and can you list the estimated initial cost of each one when it was initially proposed.
5. Can you list the estimated final cost of each of the 42 schemes as of now.
6. What is the expected outturn cost of all the 42 schemes.
7. Are there any plans for any further schemes? If so, what are they, when are they due to complete, what is the estimated initial costs and what is the estimated final cost.”

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.

Question 1 – 3

The information you have requested can be found in the attached Annex A.

Question 4

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The information you have requested can be found on the Scottish Parliament’s website here: Written question and answer: S6W-24036.

Question 5 – 6

The information you have requested can be found in the attached Annex A.

Question 7

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any material in relation to your request. This is because the responsibility for development and delivery of flood protection schemes rests with individual local authorities.

Further information which you may find helpful can be found on the Scottish Parliament website here: Written question and answer: S6W-30030.

Therefore, this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information. This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a), it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we areusing EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

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.

EIR 202400435342 - Information Released - Annex A

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