Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP): EIR release

Information requested

1. Please can the Scottish Government provide the anticipated timescale for the production of the new Infrastructure Investment Plan which will succeed the current Plan running to 2026?

2. Can the Scottish Government confirm that the new Plan will be guided by the same "three core strategic themes for guiding investment decisions in Scotland: Enabling the transition to net zero emissions and environmental sustainability; Driving inclusive economic growth; and Building resilient and sustainable places"?

3. The criteria which are being used to assess the impacts of investment decisions on specific projects on these three strategic themes of the Infrastructure Investment Plan?

4. Internal documents which evaluate the effectiveness of these criteria and assessment procedures and any discussion of amending them for the new Plan.

Response

Thank you for your request dated 12 March 2025 under Freedom of Information regulations. 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 which was as follows:

The Infrastructure Investment Plan (IIP) was published in 2021 and was intended to cover the period 2021/2022-2025/2026. However, as announced in the Scottish Government’s Medium Term Financial Strategy here, the current IIP has been extended by a period of one year. This means the IIP will run to 26/27 and the next IIP will cover the period from 27/28.

The scope, timeline and content of the next IIP is currently being developed and I cannot confirm that this will be guided by the three themes you have identified. We plan to undertake an internally led evaluation of the current IIP as part of wider engagement on content for the next IIP. To commit to the three themes at this stage would pre-judge the outcome of that work.

Our interpretation of your request at points 3 and 4 (above) is that it relates to how the Scottish Government report on and evaluate infrastructure investment decisions. 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 and this information has already been published. In the attached documents we have provided you with the relevant links to access this information.

Information relating to the three themes and impacts of investment decisions are provided in both the draft and final Infrastructure Investment Plan and accompanying Business Regulatory Impact Assessment.

• A National Mission with Local Impact - draft infrastructure investment plan 2021/2022 to 2025/2026: consultation - gov.scot
• A National Mission with Local Impact: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 - gov.scot
• Business Regulatory Impact Assessment - Infrastructure Investment Plan

The Capital Spending Review also provides details of capital spending per portfolio and confirms funding across the three themes for some of the Scottish Government’s key infrastructure commitments in national transport, energy, and environmental programmes and projects.

• The Outcome of the Targeted Review of the Capital Spending Review – Updated Spending Allocations for 2023-24 to 2025-26 - gov.scot

Information relating to how the Scottish Government evaluates and reports on outcomes in relation to the IIP are contained in a suite of documents relating to IIP progress and within our Carbon Assessment reporting. These can be found in the links below:

• Infrastructure investment - Government finance - gov.scot
• Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026: Carbon assessment - gov.scot

If you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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.