West Edinburgh Spatial Strategy for Inclusive Growth phase 2 report: EIRs response (reference 4956)

28 February 2022

28 March 2022

We formally request a copy of the WE-SSIG phase 2 report under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004...Scottish Enterprise justified withholding this document only on the basis of its imminent publication.

In our previous response dated 30 November 2021, we advised that a draft phase 2 report had been produced, however at the time it was unfinished material still in the course of completion and therefore not suitable for release.

Our understanding was that a finalised document would be ready and made publicly available at the City of Edinburgh Council’s Policy and Sustainability Committee on the 22nd February 2022.

We wish to clarify that in our response dated 30 November 2021, we applied EIRs Regulation 10(4)(d) and withheld this report because it was still in draft form and unfinished. We did not withhold the information on the basis of its imminent publication. We provided the expected date of publication as advice and guidance.

By way of further explanation, a public authority relying on exception 10(4)(d) must (under regulation 13(d)) tell a requester when it thinks the information will be finished or completed, so that the requester then knows when to make a new request for the information once the information is finished or completed.

As stated in your letter, City of Edinburgh Council recently wrote to stakeholders to advise that while the Strategy is at an advanced stage, work is being undertaken to review the draft document in view of the emerging National Planning Framework 4 and City Plan 2030, which had identified some areas that require further consideration. Given this, the Council are doing more work on the strategy to ensure it is consistent with the two aforementioned documents. The Council anticipate that this will be fully complete by June 2022.

Given the above information, we are of the view that the situation remains as before, and the phase 2 strategy continues to be unfinished – it is clearly still being worked on and changes will be made to it before it is deemed to be complete, finished and suitable for publication.

Given the phase 2 report is still in draft, we are withholding this information under EIRs Regulation 10(4)(d) - Material in the course of completion.

The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) Regulation 10(4)(d) states that: (4) A Scottish public authority may refuse to make environmental information available to the extent that– (d) the request relates to material which is still in the course of completion, to unfinished documents or to incomplete data.