Project Willow report submitted to the Scottish Government: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
1. A copy of the full Project Willow report submitted to the Scottish Government by EY (not just the published 30-page summary).
2. A copy of all research and calculation documents related to Project Willow submitted to the Scottish Government by EY.
3. All meeting minutes of the Advisory Board of Project Willow over the course of the project.
4. Any internal Scottish Government analysis, assessments, briefings or reviews of the Project Willow report between 1/1/2025 and 19/3/2025.
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.
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 exceptions under regulations 10(4)(a) (information not held) and 10(5)(e) (commercially sensitive information) of the EIRs apply to some of the information enclosed in the minute I am releasing as part of this request. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in Annex A of this letter.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG