Spittal to Beauly overhead power line project documentation: EIR release

Information requested

All correspondence and communications between or involving the ECU, SSEN, and the Scottish Government relating to ECU00006008 and any related developments in Caithness and Sutherland.

This includes:

1. Emails
2. Briefings
3. Internal memos
4. Meeting notes and agendas

Dated from 25 October 2024 to the present day.

All internal documents (drafts and final versions), strategy papers, and analyses produced or held by the ECU or the Scottish Government within the same timeframe, relating to:

1. The justification or need for the overhead line project
2. Associated or projected costs
3. Identified or anticipated risks, including technical, environmental, financial, or strategic concerns

Any documentation addressing or assessing:

1. Potential or actual environmental risks or damage, including those to wildlife, habitats, or designated areas in Caithness and Sutherland
2. Cumulative environmental impacts of the OHL and other related infrastructure projects in the region
3. The presence or risk of contamination from caesium-137 or other toxic or hazardoussubstances

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 a copy of some of the information you requested, attached within Annex A and Annex B. I shall address each of your points in turn:

1. Some of the information you have requested is enclosed within Annex A.

2. The Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested because it has no role in the regulation of electricity networks and, at the time of this response, no formal application for SSEN’s proposal for the Spittal – Loch Buidhe – Beauly 400kv OHL project have been submitted to the Scottish Government for determination. The proposal is in the pre-application phase. It may be helpful to clarify that the Scottish Government does not develop electricity infrastructure, nor does it manage any aspects of building infrastructure projects. The Scottish Government’s role is to process and consider formal applications, made to Scottish Ministers, under the Electricity Act 1989 for consent to install overhead lines or for generation assets over 50MW. Legislation and regulations relating to electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government with the National Energy System Operator responsible for the strategic approach to transmission investment working with Transmission Owners across Great Britain. Regulation of electricity networks is carried out by the independent energy regulator Ofgem.

3. All of the information you have requested regarding the environmental risks and cumulative environmental impacts is available from the Energy Consents Unit online portal at Scottish Government - Energy Consents Unit - Application Details. Both the Scoping Report and the Appendix C Ornithological Designated Sites are published within the documents section of the application. 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. I have enclosed all the information we have about Caesium – 137 concerning Spittal – Loch Buidhe – Beauly 400kv OHL project in Annex B.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested in respect of points 1, 2 and 3 owing to the following exception(s) under regulation(s) of the EIRs applies to that information.

The following exceptions apply:

• An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information.
• An exception under regulation 6(1)b of the EIRs (publicly available information) applies as some of the information is already available in the ECU portal. Some of the information have 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
• 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.
• An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (commercially sensitive) applies to some of the information.

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 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.

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 under regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held) 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.

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 202500473856 - Information released - Annex A and B

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