Scotland’s Green Renewable Energy Capacity: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. “The Company names of ALL these 100’s of Investors”
2. “The products that they have committed to invest in.”
3. “Regarding 'Green Energy' the answers to the following few questions I have
- Will the Investors be producing 'Green Hydrogen?
- Will the Investors be producing 'Blue Hydrogen?
- Will the Investors be using recycled materials for the construction of Wind Turbines and their components
- Will the Investors be using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) as opposed to ' Battery Storage'?
- Will the Investors be using Waste to Energy?
- Will the Investors be using Plastic Recycling as alternative revenue streams?
- What recycling methods are the investors offering to install in Scotland?”
4. “Why the then First Minister, Nichola Sturgeon, did not support my Company’s investment plans back in 2019/20, for Renewables Energy Technologies and Shipbuilding Opportunities, along with our Apprenticeship and Retraining schemes, and the estimated new jobs approaching 35000 across Scotland?”
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 – part 1
We have interpreted part 1 of your request to be asking for the names of companies who attended the attended the Global Offshore Wind Investment Forum on 17 March 2025, in line with the official record from First Minister’s Questions on 1 May 2025. I enclose a copy of the information you requested for part 1.
Response to your request – part 2 and 3
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.
In this case, and only in respect of part 2 and 3 of your request, carrying out your request under the EIRs would impose a significant resource and cost burden on the Scottish Government due to the volume of materials that would be considered as a part of said request. A 20 working days extension to the response deadline (under regulation 7 of the EIRs) would still not make the request manageable.
For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b).
Based on the criteria you have provided, a very large number of items were identified as in scope of your request. You may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it more manageable. For example, this could be by selecting a specific date range and/or reducing the scope of the request by querying a specific topic you are interested in. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website here.
Response to your request – part 4
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. Our aim is to provide information whenever possible, however in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about government decisions to support your company’s investment plans in 2019/2020, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
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