Clarification on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) consultation in Stromar Wind Farm scoping process: EIR release

Information requested

I would like to clarify the position regarding consultation with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB):

1. Was RSPB Scotland formally invited to provide input during the scoping consultation process for the Stromar Offshore Wind Farm project?
2. Was any response received from RSPB? If so, please provide a copy.
3. If no response was received, did Marine Scotland or the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) follow up in any way, or was any formal acknowledgement issued?
4. Was RSPB notified of the extension to the consultation deadline from 19 February 2024 to 6 March 2024?
5. If RSPB explicitly declined to comment, could you confirm the format and date of that communication (e.g. letter, email, phone call)?

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.

1. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (“RSPB”) Scotland was consulted during the consultation on the scoping report for the Stromar Offshore Wind Farm, between 19 January 2024 and 19 February 2024.

1. RSPB Scotland did not provide a response to the consultation on the scoping report.

1. I enclose some of the information requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because 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.

1. RSPB did not request an extension and therefore were not granted an extension. Extensions were granted to specific consultees upon their request and there was not a blanket extension applied to the consultation.

1. I enclose some of the information requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because 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.

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 202500473898 - Information released - Annex

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