Home Energy Scotland loans halted for solar PV: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
A copy of any correspondence or documentation received by the Scottish Government in response to its decision to halt loans given through Home Energy Scotland only for solar PV.
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.
I have attached documents which contains some of the information you have requested. Documentation was gathered from the date the change in funding for solar PV was implemented (27 June 2023) to the date your request was received (28 August 2023).
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.
Information which falls under this exception in the attached documents is redacted. As much of the correspondence relates to applications from members of the public for funding, information redacted includes that which relates to individuals who are the correspondent, or the subject of the correspondence. This includes information relating to their personal circumstances, for example, the status of their application.
Annex One summarises the attached documents that are within the scope of your request, including their title and the date the correspondence was received.
Annex Two illustrates the written Parliamentary Questions (PQs) that are within the scope of your request. The Parliamentary Questions asked are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website.
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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