Future Offshore Wind Scenarios : EIR release

Information requested

All internal Scottish Government discussion of the FOWS study (including between Ministers, Civil Servants, and Special Advisers) from 1st April 2022 – date and all Scottish Government correspondence with external parties discussing the FOWS study, from 1st April 2022 - date.

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.

A search of internal discussions of the FOWS study and correspondence with external parties discussing the FOWS study found two documents and a number of emails between Scottish Government officials. One of the documents is a report titled Spatial Squeeze in Fisheries, commissioned by the NFFO and SFF and published in June 2022. This report is publicly available and can be read in full via the following link:

https://www.nffo.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2022/06/R3900_SpatialSqueeze_Final_23Jun2022-part-1.pdf.

However, for your convenience, I also enclose the text within this report where the FOWS study is mentioned. The second document is an internal Scottish Government meeting which I enclose partial information from which makes reference to the FOWS study.

Also enclosed are the internal emails which discuss the FOWS study.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information in these materials because they contain 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.

A further exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information held in these materials because they are internal communications between civil servants about potential future policy that has not yet been agreed.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can have free and frank discussions about policy. It is clearly in the public interest that policy decisions are robustly debated and scrutinised. Premature disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

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.

FOI 202200332791- Information released

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44 page PDF

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448.7 kB