Publication - FOI/EIR release

Scottish Government correspondence with SSEN regarding overhead transmission line proposals: EIR release

Published: 23 July 2025
Directorate: Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Topic: Energy, Public sector
FOI reference: EIR/202500464314
Date received: 1 May 2025
Date responded: 2 June 2025

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004

Information requested

“Please supply details of discussions and correspondence between the Scottish Government and SSEN regarding further overhead transmission line proposals coming into and out of Beauly, Highland, aside from those in the planning system now. SSEN staff have already revealed at public consultations that two, possibly three, more 400KV lines will be required.”

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.

Response to your request

Please find attached Annex A and Annex B which contains the information that we are able to provide in response to your request. The information we are providing are for Spittal to Loch Buidhe to Beauly and Beauly to Blackhillock to Peterhead as they are currently not in the planning system. For clarity, these applications are currently at pre-application stage and the information released are what is held on file to date.

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:

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information.
An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communication) applies to some of the information.
An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (commercially sensitive) applies to some of the information.
Some of the information in scope of this request for Spittal to Loch Buidhe to Beauly has been released following completion of another EIR request. The information is available at this link: Material related to the overhead line from Spittal to Beauly: EIR release - gov.scot. Some of the information that is already publicly available can also be found Beauly to Blackhillock to New Deer to Peterhead 400kV OHL - SSEN Transmission and Spittal – Loch Buidhe – Beauly 400kV Connection - SSEN Transmission. Our Energy Consents Unit online portal also holds information which is publicly available. Please visit our website www.energyconsents.scot search – simple search – input project name. This includes all published documents related to these applications. 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.

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.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communication) applies to some of the information requested. 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.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) applies to some of the information requested because disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by law to protect a legitimate economic interest. 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. An exception 6(1)(b) of the EIRs (information already available) 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, as the information is already publicly available.

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