FOI Request - Review of Truerlein Correspondence and Documents

Request 101002998317

[Original request 101002962837 can be found here: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_140649.html]

• I'm asking for an internal review of this request, on the grounds of public interest.
• Locals have invested into this project and Truerlein received £17,500 from the Scotland's Town Partnership which is a government body.
Can you provide evidence that the public interest test was conducted in this case.

Response 23-03-2022

Following your request for review of our response to the FOI you submitted, FOI 101002962837 Truerlein Correspondence and Documents, a review meeting was held remotely on 7th March 2022. In attendance were the Records and Heritage Manager, Principal Planning Officer, Planning Officer, Senior Solicitor, Solicitor and Information Co-ordinator.

It was noted that your review request questioned whether the Public Interest Test had been applied when considering our initial response to your request. It was agreed that we had not confirmed within our initial response that the public interest had been taken into consideration regarding the application of Exemption Section 33(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – commercial sensitivity. We apologise that this was not stated within our initial response.

The Public Interest Test was discussed again during the meeting. It was agreed that there is a need to maintain confidence in the Council that the type of documents and communications requested will not be released into the public domain. Furthermore, those wishing to contact the council to discuss possible planning or development matters may be reluctant to do so in future if there is an expectation that the information may be made public. Therefore, it was agreed that the public interest in withholding the requested information outweighs the public interest in releasing it. We therefore uphold the response that the requested information is exempt from release under Section 33(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, whereby disclosure would (or would be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation. We confirm that the Public Interest Test has been applied, and that the public interest in withholding the requested information outweighs the public interest in releasing it.

For clarity, we can confirm that the Scottish Towns Partnership has been administrating the Scottish Government Scotland Loves Local Fund II and that the non-profit DMO Limited by Guarantee - Destination Dufftown has received £17,500 from this fund.