FOI/202100188343 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Average conviction of environmental crimes from 2017 onwards: EIR release
Information requested
Statistics on sentencing trends for environmental offences committed by individuals/organisations in Scotland from 2017 onward. In particular, the number of individuals/organisations sentences, what percentage of sentences were fines, the mean and median fine and the percentage of individuals/organisations that received a fine of more than £5,000.
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. The answer to your question is provided in the attached excel workbook which contains tables of people convicted in Scottish courts together with people who received direct measures (non-court disposals) by the police or Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has powers of enforcement and can also issue penalties. Further information is available from their website: Enforcement | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database is not a live system and the latest available information is for the financial year 2018-19. Statistics are presented on the number of people dealt with by the Scottish Criminal Justice System where proceedings have concluded. Information for 2019-20 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2019-20 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 18th May 2021. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs. 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.