EIR/202400445938 · FOI/EIR · not held
Pre-planting soil report commissioned for Tansy Hill woodland creation contract: EIR release
Information requested
A copy of the pre-planting soil report commissioned to support the Tilhill application (on behalf of James Jones & Sons Ltd) for Tansy Hill Woodland Creation, Forestry Grant Scheme 20FGS48423 approved on 16/9/2020.
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.
Response to your request
Under Freedom of Information, I would like to request a copy of the pre-planting soil report commissioned to support the Tilhill application (on behalf of James Jones & Sons Ltd) for Tansy Hill Woodland Creation, Forestry Grant Scheme 20FGS48423 approved on 16/9/2020.
You specifically requested a copy of the pre-planting soil report commissioned to support the Tilhill application for Tansy Hill woodland creation contract. Having carried out search of our files and records, we do not hold a specific soil report. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) Information not held. The reason why this exception applies is explained in the Annex to this letter.
The information that we do hold in relation to spoils on this site is map based and will be issued to you as attachments, as listed below:
Item 1. Cleuchfoot soil map Item 2. Cleuchfoot peat map Item 3. Cleuchfoot peat depths map 01-11-19
For context to this information, it is not unusual for Scottish Forestry, as part of woodland creation applications to receive data on soils in map format rather than in a report.
ANNEX A
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
Regulation 10(4) (a) – information not held
Regarding the information requested, under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4) (a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for which is held by Scottish Government agencies. 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about a Scottish Government agency’s work, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
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. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) Information not held.