EIR/202600515416 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
County Parish Holding (CPH) number data: EIR release
Information requested
I am requesting the geographical framework data used to generate County Parish Holding (CPH) numbers in Scotland. Specifically, I require a spreadsheet or list containing:
All active 2-digit Scottish Agricultural County Codes (CC) (codes 66 through 98).
All active 3-digit Scottish Agricultural Parish Codes (PPP) mapped to their respective County Codes.
The text names of the counties and parishes corresponding to these codes.
To be absolutely clear on the scope of this request to avoid unnecessary exemptions:
I am not requesting any full 9-digit CPH numbers, nor am I requesting the 4-digit individual holding identifiers (HHHH) or any data relating to specific farms, businesses, or individuals. I am strictly requesting the structural geographic boundary codes (the CC and PPP prefixes) used administratively by your department. As this request contains no personal data, exemptions regarding personal information should not apply.
If this information is held in a standard database format (such as .csv or .xlsx), I would be grateful if you could provide it in that format.
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.
Please find attached the information you requested in the format you asked for.
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
To be absolutely clear on the scope of this request to avoid unnecessary exemptions: I am not requesting any full 9-digit CPH numbers, nor am I requesting the 4-digit individual holding identifiers (HHHH) or any data relating to specific farms, businesses, or individuals. As this request contains no personal data, exemptions regarding personal information should not apply. 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.