Correspondence on East Nethershield Woodland Proposals: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
Based on the evidence recorded within the Case History and the recent denial by Scottish Forestry, that our Cabinet Secretary agreed with our MSP Mairi McAllan for Scottish Forestry Senior Management to meet the Community to discuss the detail of the serious Public Interest and trust issues presented and recorded during the meeting, we request the following.
1. Please provided the transcript of the Meeting on the 5th September 2023, including prior to the Community Representatives being accepted onto the call.
2. Please provide all correspondence on the Subject of the East Nethershield Woodland Proposals between your office and both, MSP Mairi McAllan and also MSP Brian Whittle.
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.
Based on the evidence recorded within the Case History and the recent denial by Scottish Forestry, that our Cabinet Secretary agreed with our MSP Mairi McAllan for Scottish Forestry Senior Management to meet the Community to discuss the detail of the serious Public Interest and trust issues presented and recorded during the meeting, we request the following.
1. Please provided the transcript of the Meeting on the 5th September 2023, including prior to the Community Representatives being accepted onto the call.
Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request, which is a note of the meeting which was taken by the Director of Operational Delivery on 5 September 2023.
2. Please provide all correspondence on the Subject of the East Nethershield Woodland Proposals between your office and both, MSP Mairi McAllan and also MSP Brian Whittle.
Please find attached the correspondence we hold.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 11(1) of the EIRs (personal information of the applicant) and regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to [some of] the information you have requested. Please see Annex A for the reasons these exceptions apply.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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