Grant payments for woodland creation and existing woodland owners: EIR release

Information requested

I would like to access data on the recipients of grant payments for woodland creation and existing woodland owners per year.

Apart of the height of the grant payment, information on the recipients should include whether they are:

1. A private, public or quango entity
2. An individual or incorporated (if incorporated what form of incorporation and what type of business)
3. A new owner or have owned the woodland longer than a year (or any period that is available) before applying for the grant

Furthermore, it should include whether they aim to generate Carbon Credits under the Woodland Carbon Code or a different code with the respective woodland and grant.

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

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 the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.

The exception which applies is Regulation 10(4)(a), information not held. This exception applies because some of the information requested was not held by Scottish Forestry at the time of your request, as noted below.

I would like to access data on the recipients of grant payments for woodland creation and existing woodland owners per year.

Scottish Forestry collates and publishes woodland creation and restoration data on a monthly basis at : https://forestry.gov.scot/publications/support-and-regulations/forestry-grant-scheme/forestry- grant-scheme-statistics.

Overall grant payment figures by year are available in our Annual Report and Accounts available here: https://forestry.gov.scot/about/reports-and-plans

As common to other similar public bodies, we do not provide individual breakdowns for recipients for this data. Information on individual recipients is held by DEFRA and can be accessed using the SGRPID search option here: https://cap-payments.defra.gov.uk/Search.aspx

Apart of the height of the grant payment, information on the recipients should include whether they are

1. A private, public or quango entity

2. An individual or incorporated (if incorporated what form of incorporation and what type of business)

While we hold information on individual Forestry Grant Scheme applicants, we do not centrally collate statistics as to whether they are individuals or incorporated entities, or whether they are public/private/quango entities, and therefore we do not hold the data requested.

3. A new owner or have owned the woodland longer than a year (or any period that is available) before applying for the grant

We do not collect information on duration of woodland ownership prior to application, and therefore we do not hold the data requested.

Furthermore, it should include whether they aim to generate Carbon Credits under the Woodland Carbon Code or a different code with the respective woodland and grant.

FGS applicants are not obliged to inform us at the point of application whether they intend to generate Carbon Credits under the Woodland Carbon Code or other codes, and therefore we do not hold the data requested. Information on Woodland Carbon Code projects can be accessed at: https://woodlandcarboncode.org.uk/uk-land-carbon-registry

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.