Correspondence relating to Whiteshore Cockles on North Uist: EIR release

Information requested

Please share any communications, documents or other material which relates to Whiteshore Cockles on North Uist, spanning from 1 January 2024 to the present date.

Please ensure any communications are dated and displayed in chronological order, that media such as images and video are included, and all forms of communications, including Whatsapp, are provided.

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

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. Any information which was out of scope to your request has been redacted particularly in relation to the attached Annexes.

Information being released
Please find attached a large PDF document which includes email communications relating to Whiteshore Cockles in North Uist from 4 June 2024 to 16 October 2024 with accompanying annexes A to G for your attention.

Publicly available information
Whiteshore Cockles has been the subject of a number of historical requests for information. The SG publishes most responses to FoI and EIR requests, in particular where information is released. You can access published requests through the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/.

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(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Some of the information you have requested is similar to a number of EIRs we have had over the years. The last request like this was on 3 June 2024. That EIR request asked for information regarding Whiteshore Cockles, since November 2021, including, but not limited to, internal & external
correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings and other documents that mention Whiteshore Cockles. This document was published on 2 September 2024 and can be found at the following link: Whiteshore Cockles: EIR release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

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 202400436602 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

14.2 MB