EIR/202400440418 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Full costs of Deposit Return Scheme court case with Biffa: EIR release
Information requested
Full costs, plus a breakdown of this, of the Scottish Government's deposit return scheme court case with Biffa.
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.
To date, the Scottish Government has spent £167,812.00 on costs related to the legal case brought by Biffa against the Scottish Ministers. The following table shows the costs broken down by financial year:
Financial Year Amount 2023/24 £5,796.00 2024/25 £162,016.00 Total £167,812.00
It may help if I explain that legal advice may be sought in both internal and external capacities and that Scottish Government staff do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of time spent providing advice on particular matters. It is therefore not possible to provide a further breakdown on the total cost and/or expenditure figure accrued by the Scottish Government with regards to legal advice received regarding the ‘Biffa Case’.
The Scottish Government, like all Governments, is necessarily involved in litigation given the range and importance of its responsibilities.
The outlays incurred in litigation are, like all other costs of Government, subject to rules about public finance decision-making and accountability.
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.
Attachments
No attachments found.