Correspondence on the topic of Scotland having 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind: EIR Release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
“Any correspondence received by the First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, or Minister for Green Skills (including the minister’s private offices) on the topic of Scotland having 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential since January 1 2022.”
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 nterest 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.
Response
1. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested – please refer to items 1 to 3 released to you. In searching for correspondence received by the First Minister, a fourth document was identified that met your criteria, of which the reference to Scotland having 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential was contained in a subset of wider text. For the purposes of your request I have therefore extracted the relevant parts and included these within the attached Annex below.
2. Some of the information requested (correspondence relating to the scheduling of Parliamentary Question S6T-00960) is already publicly available on the Scottish Parliament website using this link: Motions, Questions and Answers Search - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament.
Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.
3. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
4. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to that information, because they are draft versions of a now finalised Scottish Government paper.
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and this has been met by our publication of the final version of this document that is available at: Building a New Scotland - A stronger economy with independence (www.gov.scot).
However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished information which is still in being worked on or is under active consideration is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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