Total cost of Werritty report (Grouse Moor Management Group: Report): FOI release

Information requested

• The total cost of the Werritty report (Grouse Moor Management Group: Report) both the creation of the report and the cost of the Grouse Moor Management Group for its time in existence; ·
• from which portfolio’s budget the money came from; and ·
• whether this was wholly funded by the Scottish Government or whether any other funding was provided.

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

You asked for the total cost of the Werritty report (Grouse Moor Management Group: Report) both the creation of the report and the cost of the Grouse Moor Management Group for its time in existence. This information is available from the following links

• Grouse Moor Management Group full cost of Werritty review: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Chair of the Grouse Moor Management Review Group finances: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

You also asked from which portfolio’s budget the money came from; and whether this was wholly funded by the Scottish Government or whether any other funding was provided. I can confirm that the budget that the money came from was the Natural Resources budget, which sits under the Environmental Services budget, and this was wholly funded by the Scottish Government and that no other funding was provided. You can find out more about the Scottish Government’s budget for 2017-20 specifically, from page 169 onwards, here: scottish-budget-2019-20.pdf (www.gov.scot).

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.