GB Energy and Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub documentation: EIR release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government about GB Energy, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, briefings, from the last two months?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government about the Andy Murray tennis centre in Park of Keir, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, between August 1 2024 and November 1 2024?

3. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government about the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, from the last three months?

4. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government about a separate Scottish visa, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minutes/notes from meetings, from the last three months?

This response relates to parts 1 and 3 of your request, you will receive a separate response covering parts 2 and 4.

Response

As the information you have requested under parts 1 and 3 is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with these requests 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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is 'manifestly unreasonable'. The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

In respect of part 1 of your request, carrying out your request under the EIRs would impose a significant resource and cost burden on the Scottish Government due to the volume of materials that would be considered as a part of said request. For these reasons, we consider that part 1 of your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b).

As the exception is conditional, we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information regarding GB Energy, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it more manageable, due to the number of items identified as in scope of your request based on the criteria you have provided. For example, this could be by reducing the date range required and/or reducing the scope of the documents or correspondence, for example by querying a more specific topic you are interested in. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website here.

Response to your request – part 3

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested for part 3. These cover documentation held by Scottish Government dated over the period from 12 December 2024 to 12 March 2025.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, some exceptions have been applied to the materials related to this part of your request. The reasons for application of these exceptions are explained below.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) [Material in the Course of Completion, Unfinished Documents, or Incomplete Data] applies to some of the information requested because it relates documents which have not been completed. This exception is subject to the 'public interest test' and, taking into account 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 favour lies in favour of upholding the exception.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) [Internal Communications] applies to some of the information requested because it relates to internal communications. This exception is subject to the 'public interest test' and, taking into account 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 favour lies in favour of upholding the exception.

An exception under Regulation 10(5)(a) [International Relations, Defence, National Security and Public Safety] of the EIRs in relation to applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies as disclosure would, or may would be likely to, substantially risk national security. 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 because of interest in open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in preventing harm to national security.

An exception under Regulation 10(5)(f) [Third Party Interests] of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of information provided by third parties. 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 because of interest in open and transparent government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in preventing harm to the interests of third parties.

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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500456814 - Information released - Annex

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