Mey Battery Energy Storage System information: EIR release

Information requested

I formally request access to the following information in relation to ECU00004838 (Mey Battery Energy Storage System).

1. EIA Screening Documentation

Please provide:

A copy of the formal EIA screening decision letter for the Mey BESS proposal, including:
Any assessment made under the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017
The screening opinion issued to or requested by the applicant
Any documents relied upon to justify screening out the proposal

2. Consultee Responses (Screening and Planning)

Please provide all responses, letters, notes, or records from the following consultees regarding the screening, scoping, or assessment of Mey BESS:

Historic Environment Scotland (HES)
SEPA
Highland Council
Scottish Fire & Rescue Service
Any other statutory body consulted as part of EIA screening or Regulation 25

3. Visual Impact and Heritage Information

Please provide:

Any requests made by the ECU to the developer or consultants for visualisations, photomontages, or wirelines from:

Castle of Mey (LB1797 / GDL00096)
Earl’s Cairn (SM449)
Thomsonsfield Broch (SM588)
Any responses from the developer in relation to those visualisation requirements

4. Internal ECU Emails, Briefings or Notes

Please provide any internal communications (emails, memos, meeting notes) between ECU officials and/or Ministers that discuss:

Whether Mey BESS should or should not be subject to EIA
The decision to screen out the proposal despite proximity to nationally significant assets
Concerns about cumulative impact with Hollandmey, Charleston, Field, Lochend, or other nearby developments

Timeframe and Format

Please include all material generated between 1 January 2023 and the present date.

Please provide the information in electronic format (PDF or Word) where possible.

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 will address each point of your request in turn:

Point 1 – All of the information we have relating to screening documents including the screening request and opinion are published on the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) portal.

Point 2 - All of the consultation responses received are published on the ECU portal. In this instance the ECU did not receive a response from Scottish Fire & Rescue Service. In addition to the responses held on the ECU portal, please find Annex A enclosed.

The Energy Consents Portal (https://www.energyconsents.scot/Default.aspx) allows for full transparency of each application made by publishing all documents relating to an application, including the decision. From the main page of the website, click on the search tab, followed by 'Advanced Search.' There is then the option to search by case type and status, before selecting the 'go' button which returns the search results. These can then be exported to various file formats to allow for additional analysis.

An exception under regulation 6(1)b of the EIRs (publicly available information) applies as some of the information is already available on the ECU portal. 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 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 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information we have provided 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.

Points 3 & 4 – We do not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested as our searches have not identified any correspondence therefore there is nothing for us to release.

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.

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 202500475968 - Information released - Annex A

File type

PDF

File size

958.9 kB