R Hill and Co (the applicants) requested from the Scottish Ministers (the Ministers) information relating to advice given to Ministers concerning activities at or connected with a named farm. The Ministers responded by providing some information, while also indicating that other information was not held. The Ministers also relied on the exemptions in sections 30(b) and 36(1) of FOISA for withholding information from the applicants. Following a review, in which the Ministers upheld their original decision, the applicants remained dissatisfied and applied to the Commissioner for a decision. During the investigation, the Ministers accepted that the information requested was environmental information and therefore subject to the EIRs. Consequently, they applied section 39(2) of FOISA and thereafter relied upon the exceptions in regulations 10(4)(a) (information not held) and 10(4)(e) (internal communications) of the EIRs for withholding information.
Following the investigation, the Commissioner found that the Ministers had been correct to conclude that they did not hold information and therefore accepted that the information in question could properly be refused under regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. However, while accepting that certain information had been properly withheld under regulation 10(4)(e), the Commissioner found that the Ministers were wrong to rely on this exception for other withheld information, either because it did not comprise internal communications or because, where it did, the balance of the public interest lay in making the information available. He also required the redaction of personal data from certain of the withheld documents, finding that the exception in regulation 11(2) applied to those data. The Commissioner required the Ministers to release certain information to the applicants.
Citations:
[2008] ScotIC 099 – 2008
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Information
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.434206