EIR/202600511697 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Scottish Government correspondence regarding housing Developments: EIR release
Information requested
...following for the period 1 January 2023 to the present:
1. A list of meetings (including virtual meetings) between Scottish Government ministers, special advisers or officials and community groups, campaign groups or resident associations where housing developments or proposed developments were discussed.
2. For each meeting, please provide:
the date the parties involved the development or area discussed (where recorded)
3. Copies of any briefing notes, meeting summaries or correspondence relating to such meetings.
4. Any internal correspondence discussing engagement with such groups in the context of local opposition to housing development.
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.
39 meetings took place between 01 January 2023 and present between Scottish Government Ministers, Special Advisers or officials and community groups, campaign groups and resident associations where housing developments or proposed developments were discussed. This includes:
one meeting of the Community Housing Network, 8 meetings of the Gallowgate Transformational Regeneration Area Local Delivery Group, 7 meetings of the Laurieston Transformational Regeneration Area Local Delivery Group, 9 meetings of the Pollokshaws Transformational Regeneration Area Local Delivery Group, 8 meetings of the North Toryglen Transformational Regeneration Area Local Delivery Group, 6 meetings of the Maryhill TRA Local Delivery Group.
All of the details held for these meetings are contained within the documents released in the Annex of this letter.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to all of the information requested because it 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.
An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. Eight of the documents released contain estimated figures. Final figures are available within publicly available statistical releases available at gov.scot.
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. We recognise that there is some public interest in releasing the information in the interest of open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in publishing misleading draft figures when the final figures are in the public domain.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://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. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to all of the information requested because it 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.