Spiorad na Mara Offshore Wind Farm Scoping Report and Marine Mammal Assessment: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
I am writing under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 to request the following documents related to the proposed Spiorad na Mara Offshore Wind Farm off the west coast of the Isle of Lewis:
1. A copy of the full Scoping Report submitted by Northland Power / Spiorad na Mara Ltd (including all appendices and figures)
2. Any marine mammal baseline assessments or survey data submitted to date for the proposed development
3. Any related communications or documentation referring to cetacean population modelling or expected displacement impacts during construction
4. Any correspondence indicating that a European Protected Species (EPS) licence is anticipated or has been discussed in relation to this project
If any of the above has already been published or is available online, I would appreciate a direct link or file reference.
I would prefer to receive the information in electronic format.
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.
The information you requested in points One, Two and Three is publicly available at the following links :-
Scoping - Spiorad na Mara Limited - Spiorad na Mara Offshore Windfarm
HRA Screening Opinion - Spiorad na Mara Limited - Spiorad na Mara Offshore Wind Farm
HRA Screening Report - Spiorad na Mara Limited - Spiorad na Mara Offshore Wind Farm
Scoping Opinion - Spiorad na Mara Limited - Spiorad na Mara Offshore Wind Farm
Scoping Report - Spiorad na Mara Limited - Spiorad na Mara Offshore Windfarm
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.
With regard to point Four
The European Protected Species (EPS) licence expired on the 31 October 2024 as noted in the following link (European Protected Species licence - Geophysical surveys - Isle of Lewis - 00010277/00010377 | marine.gov.scot). We have provided correspondence, as an attachment to this response, discussing the potential requirement of a new licence.
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 because under regulation 11(2) - personal information of a third party, of the EIRs applies to that information.
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.
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