FOI/202100226156 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Subsidies paid to Balmoral estate: EIR release
Information requested
All agricultural, rural development and forestry subsidies paid by the Scottish Government and its agencies to HM Queen’s Balmoral estate for each of the 20 years starting from 2000.
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 have now completed a search and attach a spreadsheet which provides this information by individual year, title of subsidy and the total paid for each type of subsidy for that year. Please also be aware that Balmoral Estates also claimed under the Single Farm Payment Scheme in 2005 to 2014, and the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015 to 2020, as part of a cross border business which had land in different parts of the UK. However, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in England were the paying Agency, and were responsible for assessing and paying the UK claim, so for further information on those payments please contact ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk.
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.
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.