Mey Battery Energy Storage System and Gills Bay materials: EIR release

Information requested

1. Correspondence

Copies of all correspondence (emails, letters, briefings, and internal memos) between: Scottish Ministers, the Energy Consents Unit (ECU), or officials within the Scottish Government AND SSE, SSEN Transmission, or their agents/consultants (including ITPEnergised, Green Cat Renewables, or Aecom), relating to:

Mey Battery Energy Storage System (Mey BESS),
Gills Bay 132kV Switching Station,
Associated grid reinforcement works in the Caithness and North Highland area (including Hollandmey, Phillips Mains, and related infrastructure).

Date range: 1 January 2023 – present.

2. Meetings and Minutes

A list of all meetings (in-person, virtual or calls) held between the above parties during the same period, including:

• Date and time
• Attendees
• Purpose or agenda
• Any minutes, notes, or follow-up actions

3. Unminuted or Informal Contact

Please confirm whether any meetings took place which were not formally minuted, and whether any contact occurred via:

• Private mobile phones
• Messaging apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Signal)
• Unofficial email accounts

4. Briefing Packs or Ministerial Submissions

Please provide any briefing documents, internal submissions or talking points prepared for Ministers or ECU officials related to these projects, including:

• Pre-application discussions
• EIA Screening or Scoping decisions
• Planning risks or public opposition

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 shall address each of your points in turn:

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

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) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information.
• An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (commercially sensitive) 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.

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.

Points 2, 3 & 4 – While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government does not hold minutes of meetings, informal meetings, or ministerial briefings held between the parties mentioned and the Scottish Government or the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) in relation to the listed projects. Therefore, there is no information available for release.

For clarity, at the time of responding to this request, no formal application for the Gills Bay to Thurso South 132kV OHL project have been submitted to the Scottish Government for determination. The proposal is in the pre-application phase. Please also note that SSEN only served as consultees for the proposed Mey BESS project as they are not the developers for the project.

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.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in this information, but clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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 202500479392 - Information released - Annex A

File type

PDF

File size

2.8 MB