Mr Edwards requested all information relating to the finalisation and publication of the 2006 bathing water pollution results from the Scottish Ministers (the Ministers). The Ministers released some information to Mr Edwards, but withheld other documents in terms of several exemptions set out in Part 2 of FOISA. Mr Edwards remained dissatisfied following an internal review and applied to the Commissioner for a decision.
During the investigation, the Commissioner reached the initial view that the withheld information was environmental information and so Mr Edwards’ request should have been dealt with under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs). When invited to comment on this matter, the Ministers argued that the information was not environmental information. However, they indicated that, for any information that the Commissioner determined to be environmental information, they would apply the exception in regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs, which relates to ‘internal communications’.
Following an investigation, the Commissioner found that the Ministers failed to deal with Mr Edwards’ request for information in accordance with the EIRs. He required the Ministers to disclose all but one of the documents they had withheld.
Citations:
[2008] ScotIC 094 – 2008
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Scotland, Information
Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.434200