The Environmental Information (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013
Regulation 19 of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (“2004 Regulations”) provides that a person who, with the intention of preventing disclosure of information subject to a request, alters, defaces, blocks, erases, destroys or conceals the information is guilty of an offence. An offence under regulation 19 is a summary only offence with a fine not exceeding, at current levels, £5,000. As a summary only offence, any prosecution must be brought within six months of the commission of the offence, in accordance with section 136 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.