Request of costs involved in the eDevelopment service: EIR release

Information requested

How much the eDevelopment service (online planning application submission service) costs: i. the Scottish Government, ii. each local authority, and iii. in total per year to run?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answers to your request are:

1. In the last full financial year, 2022/23, the the Scottish Government contributed £220,421.63 to the operation of the eDevelopment service.

2. In the last full financial year, 2022/23, Scottish local and planning authorities contributed £165,388.00. The breakdown amongst authorities is set out below:

Aberdeen City Council £ 4,985.33

Aberdeenshire Council £ 9,731.47

Angus Council £ 3,417.31

Argyll & Bute Council £ 5,463.19

Clackmannanshire Council £ 1,143.99

Dumfries & Galloway Council £ 5,576.29

Dundee City Council £ 3,165.38

East Ayrshire Council £ 2,808.49

East Dunbartonshire Council £ 3,886.27

East Lothian Council £ 4,712.09

East Renfrewshire Council £ 3,287.82

City of Edinburgh Council £ 19,399.38

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar £ 1,499.67

Falkirk Council £ 2,979.40

Fife Council £ 11,672.69

Glasgow City Council £ 11,257.83

Highland Council £ 13,800.61

Inverclyde Council £ 1,650.18

Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park £ 888.54

Midlothian Council £ 3,133.89

Moray Council £ 3,398.50

North Ayrshire Council £ 2,887.84

North Lanarkshire Council £ 6,094.89

Orkney Islands Council £ 1,462.16

Perth & Kinross Council £ 6,718.38

Renfrewshire Council £ 3,052.52

Scottish Borders Council £ 5,014.00

Shetland Islands Council £ 1,281.76

South Ayrshire Council £ 4,107.42

South Lanarkshire Council £ 7,288.26

Stirling Council £ 3,835.54

West Dunbartonshire Council £ 1,298.41

West Lothian Council £ 4,488.50

3. In total, for the last full financial year, 2022/23, the eDevelopment service cost £385,809.63 to operate.

About FOI

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