Various documents and correspondence between Marine Scotland and Envirocentre: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for:-

“a. Letter 024 attached to the email of  1.3.19 from EnviroCentre to MS-LOT

b. The "Assessment" referred to in the 1st para of the email of 19.7.19 from Marine Scotland to Envirocentre, which was to be submitted by 16.8.19

c.The applicants' response to the request from MS in their email of 19.7.19 for an evaluation of the effect on the SSSI of sediment transportation arising from the increased dredging.

d. The applicants response to the request from MS in their email of 19.7.19 for information regarding the impact of the proposed works on the wave regime and tidal movements over the adjacent areas of the SSSI.

e. The marine mammal mitigation plan referred to in the email of 19.7.19.

f. All correspondence relating to points a-e including covering correspondence.

g. All maps, documents and correspondence relating to determining boundary the MHWS & MLWS and its relationship to the SSSI as suggested in Document 4 Minutes of the meeting held between Marine Scotland, Peel Ports & Envirocentre on 23rd November 2018.

h. The new licence application(s)”

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.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.
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 exceptions under regulations 10(4)(a) (information not held) and 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EIRs applies to that information.  The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Exceptions that apply
Exceptions under regulations 10(4) (a) (information not held) and 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EIRs apply to some of the information you have requested.

1. The Scottish Government does not have the information
Regulation 10(4)(a) – A Scottish public authority may refuse to make environmental information available to the extent that (a) it does not hold that information when an applicant’s request is received.
Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.  The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because the information has not been submitted by the Company.
This exception 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 exception.  We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.  While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about Hunterston, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
2. Personal information of a third party
Regulation 11(2) – To the extent that environmental information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and in relation to which either the first or second condition set out in paragraphs (3) and (4) is satisfied, a Scottish public authority shall not make the personal data available.
An exception under regulation 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information of a third party) 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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI-19-02061 Information Released

File type

18 page PDF

File size

1.1 MB