Information that we may withhold

All information covered by our publication scheme can either be accessed through our website, or will be provided promptly following our receipt of your request.

Our aim in maintaining this publication scheme is to be as open as possible. You should note, however, that there may be limited circumstances where information will be withheld from release. Information will only be withheld, however, where FOISA (or, in the case of environmental information, the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004) expressly permits it.

Information may be withheld, for example, where its disclosure would breach the law of confidentiality, harm an organisation's commercial interests, or endanger the protection of the environment. Information may also be withheld if it is another person's personal information, and its release would breach the data protection legislation.

Whenever information is withheld we will inform you of this, and will set out why that information cannot be released. Even where information is withheld it may be possible to provide copies with the withheld information edited out.

If you wish to complain about any information which has been withheld from you, please refer to the FOI Complaints section.