Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for Stromar Project: EIR release

Information requested

I am writing to submit an additional Freedom of Information request related to the Stromar Offshore Wind Farm project, following my earlier FOI submission dated 21 June 2025.

Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I would like to request:

1. Consultation with RSPB Scotland

Records of any communication, consultation, or engagement with RSPB Scotland (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) regarding either the onshore or nearshore aspects of the Stromar project, including but not limited to:

• Landfall location (eastern or western)
• Impacts on SPA or SSSI sites
• Bird sensitivity or ornithological concerns
• Early-stage scoping discussions, advice, or correspondence

Any correspondence with developers, consultants, Marine Scotland, NatureScot, or other stakeholders referencing RSPB’s role, expected input, or absence from consultation on the onshore impacts of the project.

Any assessments, internal notes, or memos relating to why RSPB were or were not consulted, particularly regarding the western landfall area within the Rosehearty to Fraserburgh SSSI.

If this topic overlaps with any other department or agency (such as NatureScot or ECU), please advise or forward accordingly.

I appreciate your attention to this supplementary request and look forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.

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 an exception under, regulation 11(2) personal information and regulation 11(1) personal information of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

Regulation 11(2) - Personal Information of a third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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.

Regulation 11(1) – applicant has asked for their own personal data

An exception under regulation 11(1) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal information of which you are the data subject, and so it is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and 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 202500472614- Information released - Annex

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