Freedom of Information Request - Kinloch Castle, Rum
Date: 28 November 2025
Our ref: SIR181940/A5583511
Information Request – Kinloch Castle, Rum
Your Request
All documents, records, and correspondence showing the amount of money spent by NatureScot or its predecessor organisations on Kinloch Castle, Rum, over the past 26 years.
This should include, but not be limited to:
Repair and maintenance work, whether routine or exceptional.
Capital works, refurbishment, or restoration projects.
If possible, I would appreciate this information broken down by financial year and by type of work.
Our Response
Following a search of the information we hold our response is attached separately. These records have been extracted from our Finance system. We have removed fields which are captured/generated for business purposes, e.g. internal references, but do not help inform your request.
However please note, we are only obligated to retain financial information for 10 years. We have not provided any legacy records as we are now unable to verify them or guarantee their accuracy. Therefore, for records more than 10 years old EIRs Regulation 10(4)(a) (Information not held) applies to your request for the information.
Information Not Released
− We have not provided relevant documents or correspondence over the 26-year period. This amounts to several thousand pages of information which would all need to be reviewed for relevance, collated, and for sensitive and personal data to then be redacted (marked out) as required. We are therefore applying Regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs to this part of your request, as fulfilling it would place an unreasonable burden on us and disrupt our ability to deliver our core work. Regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs permits a refusal of a request or part of a request when it is too large and burdensome to deal with. In this case we are satisfied that the public interest in not providing the information is greater than the public interest in doing so due to the amount of staff resources required and the impact on our ability to meet other statutory duties.
− We have redacted personal data from the documents because releasing personal data into the public domain in response to an access to information request would breach the Data Protection Act 2018. We are therefore withholding the information under 11(2) (Personal Data) of the EIRs.
− We have also redacted reference to a specific security system in the attached information. It is not in the public interest to expose NatureScot’s buildings to security threats. We are therefore withholding the information under EIR Scotland Regulation 10(5)(e) confidentiality of commercial or industrial information.
How We Handled Your Request
We believe you have asked for environmental information as defined in the Environmental Information (Scotland Regulations 2004 (‘the EIRs’), so we are dealing with your request under those regulations. To be able to use the EIRs, we must apply an exemption under section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (‘FOISA’). The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance recommends that public authorities apply this exemption to environmental information and handle request under the EIRs.
If you would like to find out more about the access to information legislation, there is a guidance booklet available on the Scottish Information Commissioner’s website.
Review and Appeal
I hope this information meets your requirements, but if you are dissatisfied with how we have responded to your information request, please write to us within 40 working days explaining your concerns. You can contact us at Battleby, Redgorton, Perth, PH1 3EW or email us at [email protected]. We will carry out a review of our response and contact you with our findings within 20 working days.
If you are not satisfied following this, you can make an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner within 6 months. The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Yours sincerely
FOI Officer,
NatureScot
Document downloads
Due to file size the attached information, referenced above, is available on request by contacting the FOI team at [email protected]. Please reference the case number (starting with SIR).
