West of Orkney Wind farm meeting information: EIR release

Information requested

1. All diary entries, meeting records, briefing notes and attendee lists for any meetings (formal or informal), from 1 June 2023 to 30 June 2025, involving Gillian Martin MSP (including while she was Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy / Minister for Climate Action / Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy) and any representatives, executives, consultants or intermediaries of the following organisations or joint venture(s) connected to the West of Orkney Windfarm:

• Corio Generation
• TotalEnergies (including TotalEnergies Renewables UK)
• Renewables Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG)
• Any third-party stakeholder facilitators or consultancies acting on behalf of the above in relation to
• West of Orkney (please include their names if available).

2. Any correspondence (including emails or briefing materials) sent to or from Gillian Martin’s office regarding planned or actual meetings with the above organisations about the West of Orkney Windfarm or associated grid/enabling work (including “B2D-E” / Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council related matters).

3. Clarification on the entry in the FOI release EIR-202500451992 stating: “CM met with Gillian Martin MSP, December 14, 2023, to discuss various B2D-E items.” Please disclose who “CM” refers to in that context and provide the full minutes, agenda, or note of that meeting.

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 most of the information you requested.

With regard to your request:

“Clarification on the entry in the FOI release EIR-202500451992 stating: “CM met with Gillian Martin MSP, December 14, 2023, to discuss various B2D-E items.” Please disclose who “CM” refers to in that context and provide the full minutes, agenda, or note of that meeting.”

I can confirm that “CM” refers to Claire Mack, CEO of Scottish Renewables, and the meeting referred to is included in the PDF document of released information of this request.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website: [Correspondence between BP employees and Scottish Government: EIR release - gov.scot]. 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. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 under Regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in releasing the information as part of an open, transparent and accountable government. However, this is outweighed by the greater public interest in allowing Scottish Government officials and Ministers to share free and frank views for the purpose of deliberation of any given policy.

An exception under Regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) applies to some of the information requested. This exception applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, substantially prejudice the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information. 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.

An exception under Regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs (third party interests) applies to some of the information requested. This exception applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, cause substantial prejudice to the interests of a person who provided information voluntarily to the authority. 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 and have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception due to the nature of the information provided by the third party.

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 202500478286 - Information released - Documents

File type

PDF

File size

424.5 kB