Environmental Information

Requests for environmental information are processed under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

As with FOISA, Melville is permitted to charge a fee for providing environmental information on request, although the specific charging rules are different.  In particular there are no upper or lower limits to the fee which we may be charged. Instead, the EIRs state the fees shall not exceed 'a reasonable amount' and should not be more than the actual cost of producing the information requested.

1. When will Melville charge for environmental information?

If you request information that comes under the EIR category then we reserve the right to charge for:

  • staff time locating, retrieving and assembling the requested information. This will be charged at the actual cost of the lowest grade of member of staff carrying out the task
  • photocopying and or printing - will be charged per sheet (see table below)
  • the cost of posting the information (at cost)

We will not charge you if answering your query will cost less than £100. 

Where providing the requested information costs between £100-£600, the fees will be restricted to the cost of retrieving, copying and posting only.

If answering a query is likely to cost more than £600, then we reserve the right to refuse to answer it.

You will always be notified of any charge before the information is provided and payment must be received in advance.

2. When will you not charge for environmental information?

We will not charge a fee for the provision of information under the EIRs where the cost to provide it is less than £100.

3. How much do you charge for printing/copying?
Black and white Colour
A4 10p per sheet 20p per sheet
A3 15p per sheet 30p per sheet 

 

4. How much do you charge to supply information digitally?

There is no charge for sending information by email.

To supply a large amount of information digitally, we charge £5 for each USB memory stick required. 

5. Are there cases where you could refuse to provide the information requested because of cost?

In cases where we estimate it will cost more than £600 to answer a query, we may refuse to provide the information.

The EIRs do not set a maximum cost of compliance, so we will consider each request individually.

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