Council staff working on climate action
Climate Emergency UK made this Freedom of Information request to East Lothian Council as part of a batch sent to 32 authorities Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Dear East Lothian Council,
Please treat this as a Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulations request.
I would like information about your council’s staff positions in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information is most likely to be held by a HR department or similar.
In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:
1a. How many staff does the Council directly employ (excluding contractors or subcontractors, and excluding teachers), that work directly for the Council as opposed to a school, leisure centres or other venture?
1b. How many directly employed staff spend 3 or more days per week (0.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)) on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other climate change projects? Please provide a list of all the roles. Please exclude waste management staff unless they are specifically working 3 or more days per week on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other climate change projects.
If you have answered yes to have a biodiversity planning officer and/or a retrofit staff member below, both these staff members can be included in this question even if they are contracted. This is likely to include all staff in your climate/sustainability team, such as Climate Change Officers or similar. This may include full time staff who spend 60% of their time on climate change projects and 40% of their time on other work.
You might include other staff in other departments, such as a procurement officer if they are spending 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE) on writing and implementing a sustainable procurement policy or a planner that is working primarily on low carbon policies for new buildings.
2. Does the council have one or more staff member who works on home energy efficiency retrofitting, such as retrofit officers or project managers across the council area, for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE). The work of this officer may include working on any retrofit projects, including council buildings, council homes or private rented or owned households.
Please list any roles that work in this area, including the full time equivalent (FTE) if they work part time.
Please include staff members that are shared with other councils, such as between county and district councils, and note if they are shared across other areas.
3. How many planning ecologists (ecologists within the planning department) or equivalent working for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE) does the council employ to scrutinise planning reports for Biodiversity Net Gain? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE).
I look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Yours faithfully,
Hannah Jewell, Climate Emergency UK
Thank you for your email.
This automated message is East Lothian Council’s acknowledgement that your
information request has been received and is receiving attention. The
statutory timescales for responses are as follows:
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 20 working days
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 20 working days
Internal Reviews 20 working days
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [1][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[2]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [3]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [4]website.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[East Lothian Council request email]
2. https://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/2105...
3. Link to ELC website
http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/704/d...
4. Link to SIC website
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Thank you for your email of 16^th January.
In order for East Lothian Council to process your request efficiently, it
would be most helpful if you could please define which staff you are
refering too in Question 1b, is it staff who contribute to the delivery
only or to all staff involved as a whole . For your information, I have
provided an extract from the website of the Scottish Information
Commissioner which explains how our request affects the timescales of this
enquiry:
[1]What happens to the 20 working day period if I need more information
from the applicant to let me deal with the request?
If you need to ask the applicant for further information to help you
identify and locate the information they want, the 20 working days "clock"
does not start counting down until you have received their clarification.
The deadline for compliance will be the twentieth working day after you
receive additional information from the applicant.
Public authorities must not misuse this by delaying asking the applicant
for further information in order to give themselves more time to reply
when the additional information isn't really needed.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter, I look forward to hearing
from you in due course. In the meantime, under the terms of this
legislation, if you are unhappy with the way your request has been
handled, you are entitled to request that we undertake an internal
review. Please note, however, that both the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 only relate to the release of information. The Scottish
Information Commissioner publishes the following guidance about internal
reviews:
You can ask the authority to review its decision if it does not respond or
you are unhappy with the way it has dealt with your request, for example
by:
· refusing to give you the information
· failing to reply to you within the time limit allowed
· claiming the information is exempt
· failing to give you advice about, and help with, making
your request
· asking you to pay a fee that you feel is unreasonable
For example, if you are unhappy because you do not believe the information
you have received is accurate, an internal review would not apply. Should
this be the case, however, please let me know and I will try to resolve
this. If I am unable to help, I will be happy to put you in touch with
someone who can.
We must receive a request to review within 40 working days of the date of
this notice. A request to review our decision must be in writing (e-mail
is acceptable) or another permanent format. When writing, you should
include your reasons as to why you are unhappy with our response and why
you wish it to be reviewed. Your reasons for dissatisfaction must relate
to your information request of 16^th January only and should be addressed
to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
People and Governance
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [2][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review and give you our decision. In
order to ensure an impartial approach, an independent senior officer will
be appointed to carry out the review.
If you are still not satisfied with our decision following the review
process, then you may ask the Office of the Scottish Information
Commissioner (OSIC) to investigate the matter. You may submit your appeal
online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online appeal service is provided
for your convenience:
[3]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [4][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Lyndsay Winters
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [5][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[6]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [7]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [8]website.
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004
I refer to our email of 18^th January and note that we have not yet
received your reply.
East Lothian Council is unable to proceed with this matter until we
receive the clarification requested. Once we have received this, we will
be able to make the necessary enquiries and respond to you as soon as
possible within 20 working days.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course but if you require any
assistance in the meantime please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours sincerely
Lyndsay Winters
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [1][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[2]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [3]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [4]website.
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 18 January 2023 11:09
To: '[FOI #936483 email]'
<[FOI #936483 email]>
Subject: 2023/ELF6389 - Freedom of Information request - Council staff
working on climate action
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Thank you for your email of 16^th January.
In order for East Lothian Council to process your request efficiently, it
would be most helpful if you could please define which staff you are
refering too in Question 1b, is it staff who contribute to the delivery
only or to all staff involved as a whole . For your information, I have
provided an extract from the website of the Scottish Information
Commissioner which explains how our request affects the timescales of this
enquiry:
[5]What happens to the 20 working day period if I need more information
from the applicant to let me deal with the request?
If you need to ask the applicant for further information to help you
identify and locate the information they want, the 20 working days "clock"
does not start counting down until you have received their clarification.
The deadline for compliance will be the twentieth working day after you
receive additional information from the applicant.
Public authorities must not misuse this by delaying asking the applicant
for further information in order to give themselves more time to reply
when the additional information isn't really needed.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter, I look forward to hearing
from you in due course. In the meantime, under the terms of this
legislation, if you are unhappy with the way your request has been
handled, you are entitled to request that we undertake an internal
review. Please note, however, that both the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 only relate to the release of information. The Scottish
Information Commissioner publishes the following guidance about internal
reviews:
You can ask the authority to review its decision if it does not respond or
you are unhappy with the way it has dealt with your request, for example
by:
· refusing to give you the information
· failing to reply to you within the time limit allowed
· claiming the information is exempt
· failing to give you advice about, and help with, making
your request
· asking you to pay a fee that you feel is unreasonable
For example, if you are unhappy because you do not believe the information
you have received is accurate, an internal review would not apply. Should
this be the case, however, please let me know and I will try to resolve
this. If I am unable to help, I will be happy to put you in touch with
someone who can.
We must receive a request to review within 40 working days of the date of
this notice. A request to review our decision must be in writing (e-mail
is acceptable) or another permanent format. When writing, you should
include your reasons as to why you are unhappy with our response and why
you wish it to be reviewed. Your reasons for dissatisfaction must relate
to your information request of 16^th January only and should be addressed
to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
People and Governance
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [6][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review and give you our decision. In
order to ensure an impartial approach, an independent senior officer will
be appointed to carry out the review.
If you are still not satisfied with our decision following the review
process, then you may ask the Office of the Scottish Information
Commissioner (OSIC) to investigate the matter. You may submit your appeal
online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online appeal service is provided
for your convenience:
[7]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [8][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Lyndsay Winters
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [9][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[10]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [11]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [12]website.
Dear Lydnsay,
Thank you for your patience. I would like a list of all staff who spend 3 days a week or more of their time on any climate action, including both direct delivery of the climate action plan and any other climate work, but excluding waste management staff who do not explicitly work on climate.
I acknowledge that the 20 day 'clock' will be restarted with my reply.
Yours sincerely,
Climate Emergency UK
Thank you for your email.
This automated message is East Lothian Council’s acknowledgement that your
information request has been received and is receiving attention. The
statutory timescales for responses are as follows:
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 20 working days
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 20 working days
Internal Reviews 20 working days
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [1][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[2]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [3]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [4]website.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[East Lothian Council request email]
2. https://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/2105...
3. Link to ELC website
http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/704/d...
4. Link to SIC website
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Thank you for your enquiry of 16 January and clarification of 20 March.
I have been asked to inform you that, under Regulation 8 of The
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, East Lothian Council (ELC)
considers that payment of a fee is reasonable in order to comply with your
request; please refer to the PDF attachment for further details.
It is ELC’s [1]policy to recover full staff costs for every information
request received which falls under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (EIRs). If you do not consider that your request falls
within scope of the EIRs, or if you wish to contest the amount of the fee,
you have the right to request a review. We must receive a request to
review within 40 working days of the date of this notice. A request to
review must be in writing (e-mail is acceptable) or another permanent
format and should be addressed to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [2][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review of the fee amount and give you our
decision.
If you are still not satisfied with following the review process, then you
may ask the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC) to
investigate the matter. You must appeal to the Commissioner within six
months of receiving the review decision. You may submit your appeal
online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online appeal service is provided
for your convenience:
[3]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [4][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [5][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[6]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [7]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [8]website.
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004
I refer to our email of 04 April and note that we have not yet received
the requested fee.
East Lothian Council is unable to proceed with this matter until we
receive the fee of £36.80. Once this has been received, we will respond to
you as soon as possible within the remainder of the statutory 20 working
days.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course but if you require any
assistance in the meantime please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [1][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[2]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [3]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [4]website.
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 04 April 2023 10:47
To: 'Climate Emergency UK' <[FOI #936483 email]>
Subject: 2023/ELF6389 - Freedom of Information request - Council staff
working on climate action
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Thank you for your enquiry of 16 January and clarification of 20 March.
I have been asked to inform you that, under Regulation 8 of The
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, East Lothian Council (ELC)
considers that payment of a fee is reasonable in order to comply with your
request; please refer to the PDF attachment for further details.
It is ELC’s [5]policy to recover full staff costs for every information
request received which falls under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (EIRs). If you do not consider that your request falls
within scope of the EIRs, or if you wish to contest the amount of the fee,
you have the right to request a review. We must receive a request to
review within 40 working days of the date of this notice. A request to
review must be in writing (e-mail is acceptable) or another permanent
format and should be addressed to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [6][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review of the fee amount and give you our
decision.
If you are still not satisfied with following the review process, then you
may ask the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC) to
investigate the matter. You must appeal to the Commissioner within six
months of receiving the review decision. You may submit your appeal
online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online appeal service is provided
for your convenience:
[7]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [8][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [9][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[10]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [11]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [12]website.
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Further to our correspondence of 04 April and 12 May, as we have not
received the requested fee, I am writing to inform you that East Lothian
Council has now closed this case.
East Lothian Council will be happy to consider any future information
requests that you may wish to submit. Simply send your request to us at
[1][East Lothian Council request email]. For your reference, a link to the “Tips for
Requesters” page of the Scottish Information Commissioner’s website has
been provided which you may find useful:
[2]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Under the terms of this legislation, if you are unhappy with the way your
request has been handled, you are entitled to request that we undertake an
internal review. Please note, however, that both the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information
(Scotland) Regulations 2004 only relate to the release of information.
The Scottish Information Commissioner publishes the following guidance
about internal reviews:
You can ask the authority to review its decision if it does not respond or
you are unhappy with the way it has dealt with your request, for example
by:
· refusing to give you the information
· failing to reply to you within the time limit allowed
· claiming the information is exempt
· failing to give you advice about, and help with, making
your request
· asking you to pay a fee that you feel is unreasonable
For example, if you are unhappy because you do not believe the information
you have received is accurate, an internal review would not apply. Should
this be the case, however, please let me know and I will try to resolve
this. If I am unable to help, I will be happy to put you in touch with
someone who can.
We must receive a request to review within 40 working days of the date of
this notice. A request to review our decision must be in writing (e-mail
is acceptable) or another permanent format. When writing, you should
include your reasons as to why you are unhappy with our response and why
you wish it to be reviewed. Your reasons for dissatisfaction must relate
to your information request of 16 January only and should be addressed to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
People and Governance
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [3][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review and give you our decision. In
order to ensure an impartial approach, an independent senior officer will
be appointed to carry out the review.
If you are still not satisfied with our decision following the review
process, then you may ask the Office of the Scottish Information
Commissioner (OSIC) to investigate the matter. You must appeal to
the Commissioner within six months of receiving the review decision. You
may submit your appeal online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online
appeal service is provided for your convenience:
[4]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [5][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [6][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[7]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [8]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [9]website.
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 12 May 2023 15:55
To: '[FOI #936483 email]'
<[FOI #936483 email]>
Subject: FW: 2023/ELF6389 - Freedom of Information request - Council staff
working on climate action
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004
I refer to our email of 04 April and note that we have not yet received
the requested fee.
East Lothian Council is unable to proceed with this matter until we
receive the fee of £36.80. Once this has been received, we will respond to
you as soon as possible within the remainder of the statutory 20 working
days.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course but if you require any
assistance in the meantime please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Freedom of Information Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [10][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[11]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [12]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [13]website.
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 04 April 2023 10:47
To: 'Climate Emergency UK' <[FOI #936483 email]>
Subject: 2023/ELF6389 - Freedom of Information request - Council staff
working on climate action
Our Ref: 2023/ELF6389
Dear Ms Jewell
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
Thank you for your enquiry of 16 January and clarification of 20 March.
I have been asked to inform you that, under Regulation 8 of The
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, East Lothian Council (ELC)
considers that payment of a fee is reasonable in order to comply with your
request; please refer to the PDF attachment for further details.
It is ELC’s [14]policy to recover full staff costs for every information
request received which falls under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (EIRs). If you do not consider that your request falls
within scope of the EIRs, or if you wish to contest the amount of the fee,
you have the right to request a review. We must receive a request to
review within 40 working days of the date of this notice. A request to
review must be in writing (e-mail is acceptable) or another permanent
format and should be addressed to:
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Email: [15][East Lothian Council request email]
We will have a maximum of 20 working days from the date we receive your
request in order to complete our review of the fee amount and give you our
decision.
If you are still not satisfied with following the review process, then you
may ask the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC) to
investigate the matter. You must appeal to the Commissioner within six
months of receiving the review decision. You may submit your appeal
online via OSIC’s website, a link to the online appeal service is provided
for your convenience:
[16]http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...
Alternatively, you may contact OSIC at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [17][email address]
If you remain dissatisfied following the Commissioner’s decision, you may
be able to appeal to the Court of Session. You should, however, obtain
legal advice before deciding on this course of action. This is because an
appeal may only be made on a point of law, not because you disagree with
the Commissioner’s view of the case.
Yours sincerely
Kelly McCormack
Customer Feedback and FOI Team
East Lothian Council
John Muir House
Haddington
EH41 3HA
Tel: 01620 827623
Email: [18][East Lothian Council request email]
Information about East Lothian Council’s complaints procedure can be found
[19]here.
Details of your rights to requesting information from East Lothian Council
are published [20]here.
The Scottish Information Commissioner is responsible for the enforcement
of Scotland's freedom of information laws. Guidance regarding your rights
of access to information held by Scottish public authorities is available
on the Commissioner’s [21]website.
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
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