FOI/201900008826 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Ministerial correspondence concerning planning appeals in relation to land at Clarendon Farm in Linlithgow: EIR release
Information requested
You asked for:
"...... the following information relating to Planning Appeals PPA-400-2046, submitted to Scottish Ministers (decision issued 21/7/15) and PPA-400-2093 (decision issued 14/05/2019), both related to the same land at Clarendon Farm, Linlithgow: 1. A copy of all correspondence between the Planning Minister and his staff relating to the appeals, including copies of meetings, minutes, calls, e-mails and other messages to both appeals. 2. A copy of all correspondence between the Planning Minister and his staff relating to the appeal, including copies of meetings, minutes, calls, e-mails and other messages relating to the Minister recalling Appeal PPA-400 2046."
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 enclose a copy of the information you requested.
Please note that some of the information within the documents provided (names/signatures/email addresses) have been redacted in line with our privacy policy and in accordance with regulation 11(2) of the EIRs ( personal information), because that information is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. 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.
About FOI
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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. Please note that some of the information within the documents provided (names/signatures/email addresses) have been redacted in line with our privacy policy and in accordance with regulation 11(2) of the EIRs ( personal information), because that information is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.