Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024 – 2029 publication: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request: 202400436304

Can you tell me who is responsible for creating the following publication? https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2024/09/scottishnational-adaptation-plan-2024-2029-2/documents/scottish-national-adaptation-plan-2024-2029/scottishnational-adaptation-plan-2024-2029/govscot%3Adocument/scottish-national-adaptation-plan-2024-2029.pdf

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for your question about the responsibility for content of the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (Ref - 202400436304). I have concluded that the original decision should be substituted with slight modification. I have reviewed all available documents and the handling of this case and I am satisfied that no unnecessary exemptions were applied.

In undertaking this review it has been noted that this matter should have been handled under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) and not the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) regime. I apologise for this oversight. As the information you have requested is regarded as ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) we are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) to your request, so that we do not also have to deal with this part of the 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 means that in line with the previous letter, I can confirm that the Adaptation Team, which is part of the Scottish Government Directorate for Energy and Climate Change, Domestic Climate Change Division, is responsible for drafting the Scottish National Adaptation Plan. Any content not directly created by the Scottish Government, or on its behalf by partners such as Adaptation Scotland, is clearly referenced in the document which is available on the Scottish Government website: Supporting documents - Climate change: Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of 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. I can however provide the names of the responsible senior civil servants: Catriona Laing, Deputy Director for Domestic Climate Change and Kersti Berge, Director for Energy and Climate Change. In addition, for each objective set out in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan there is a reference to which Scottish Government Directorate is the lead policy area, which indicates responsibility for the relevant content.

You asked about the responsibility for content in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan. Therefore, I can confirm that the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires the Scottish Ministers to produce a 'national adaptation programme'. The relevant section is 53, subsection 2(a) which states that the Scottish Ministers must lay a programme before the Scottish Parliament setting out their objectives, proposals and policies in relation to adaptation to climate change. The Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-29 was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 24 September 2024, in line with section 53 of the Act. The Minister with overall portfolio responsibility for Climate Adaptation matters is Gillian Martin MSP, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy.

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.