FOI/202200332330 · FOI/EIR · not held
Planning appeals costs: EIR request
Information requested
1. The number of Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, Moray, Angus council planning appeal application decisions overruled by the Scottish Government since 2017-18, with a breakdown by council and fiscal year. 2. The total amount (in £) the Scottish Government has spent on overruling these decisions in each local authority since 2017-18, with a breakdown by council and fiscal year.
Response
If I might firstly explain that, because, the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIR’s), 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 the information you requested in relation to question “1”.
17-18 Authority Appeals Decided Appeals Allowed Percentage Allowed Aberdeen City Council 6 3 50% Aberdeenshire Council 16 6 35% Angus Council 2 2 100% Moray Council 2 2 100% 2018-19 Authority Appeals Decided Appeals Allowed Percentage Allowed Aberdeen City Council 6 3 50% Aberdeenshire Council 23 6 38% Angus Council 0 n/a n/a Moray Council 1 1 100%
2019-20 Authority Appeals Decided Appeals Allowed Percentage Allowed Aberdeen City Council 4 1 25% Aberdeenshire Council 14 8 57% Angus Council 3 1 33% Moray Council 3 1 33% 2020-21 Authority Appeals Decided Appeals Allowed Percentage Allowed Aberdeen City Council 7 3 43% Aberdeenshire Council 19 12 63% Angus Council 0 n/a n/a Moray Council 1 1 100%
2021-22 Authority Appeals Decided Appeals Allowed Percentage Allowed Aberdeen City Council 7 4 57% Aberdeenshire Council 15 9 60% Angus Council 1 0 0% Moray Council 0 n/a n/a
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. 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 exact information you have requested in “2” because this information is not collected by the Scottish Government. 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 planning applications and appeals clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold. We are however in a position to provide you with a breakdown of all the spend with DPEA relating to all works carried out. To provide a bit of context to this spend I would confirm as follows: 1. Appeal work tends to form about 40% of the work we deliver under this total budget 2. Of that 40% approximately half of these cases are planning appeals 3. This budget covers casework, not just planning appeals, for every planning authority in Scotland and not just the authorities listed in your request
PEA Spe work, £ 2017-18 3,371,762 2018-19 3,360,171 2019-20 3,607,439 2020-21 3,609,098 2021-22 3,783,863
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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
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. 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.
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