Sewage spills in Scotland's waters: EIR release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all correspondence held between the Scottish Government and SEPA about sewage in Scottish waters, specifically about the negative press surrounding this, from the last six months?

2. Could you supply all documentation held, including correspondence (including internal), briefings, minutes/notes from meetings, analysis, about sewage spills in Scotland's waters, from the last three months?

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.

Request for copies of information held regarding sewage in Scottish waters

Question 1

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you are seeking in relation to correspondence between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regarding negative press on sewage in Scottish waters for the time period specified (18 May 2024 to 18 November 2024). Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as part of the response to your request we have conducted a search of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system and have been unable to locate the information requested.

I would also highlight that we store information and documentation by policy area and/or subject matter rather than by the specific content contained within said documents and have therefore been unable to link any information held to the “negative press” that you mention in your request.

You may wish to submit a further request for this information and it would be helpful if you could explain in more detail the “negative press” that you mention to help us narrow down our search to the specific areas you are interest in.

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) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime 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.

Question 2

I have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.

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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400441154 - Information released - Annex A and B

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