EIR/202600516244 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Scottish Forestry - Environmental Impact Assessment screening opinions data: EIR release
Information requested
My FOI request relates to the Forestry Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 (‘the 2017 Regulations’).
I would be grateful if you could send me the following information:
1. The number of screening opinions issued by Scottish Forestry under the 2017 Regulations since December 2023.
2. The number of screening opinions where Scottish Forestry adopted an opinion that a forestry project was an EIA project.
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.
We have responded to your requests as we have numbered in the above.
1. The number of screening opinions issued by Scottish Forestry under the 2017 Regulations since December 2023.
The number of screening opinions issued by Scottish Forestry under the Forestry (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 since 1 December 2023 is 587.
2. The number of screening opinions where Scottish Forestry adopted an opinion that a forestry project was an EIA project.
Since 1 December 2023, Scottish Forestry adopted one screening opinion that a forestry project was an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) forestry project.
Scottish Forestry’s active EIA projects may be viewed in this section of our EIA Public Register: https://www.forestry.gov.scot/current-eia-cases
All other current EIA projects arose due to one of the following circumstances:
Regulation 15 request from an applicant (for a scoping opinion). EIA enforcement action The screening opinion was issued before the period detailed in this request.
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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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.
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