European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings, minutes/notes from meetings, analysis, about/from the European Marine Energy Centre, specifically about funding coming from the UK Government between April 15 2024 and June 15 2024.

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 enclose some of the information requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested under regulation 6(1)(b) – information already available, regulation 10(4)(a) - information not held, and regulation 11(2) - personal information of a third party. The reasons why these exceptions apply to this information are explained below.

Some of the information you have requested is available online via - UK Government supports EMEC growth plans : EMEC: European Marine Energy Centre. The article announces the £3 million grant funding from the UK Government to EMEC, to unlock growth opportunities to help deliver the UK’s net zero ambitions. 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. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings, minutes/notes from meetings, analysis, about/from the European Marine Energy Centre, specifically about funding coming from the UK Government between April 15 2024 and June 15 2024, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Lastly, regulation 11(2) – To the extent that environmental information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and in relation to which either the first or second condition set out in paragraphs (3) and (4) is satisfied, a Scottish public authority shall not make the personal data available.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information of a third party) 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 202500460478 - Information Released - Annex

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