Scottish Government Heat Network Fund (SGHNF) application from Abertay University: EIR release

Information requested

1. The full SGHNF application submitted by Abertay University, including any business case, technical appendices, and project justification materials. 

2. Any correspondence between Abertay University and SGHNF/HNSU regarding the application’s status, evaluation, or outcome.

3. Any internal assessments or scoring documents related to Abertay’s SGHNF bid.

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.

The answer to your response is as below:

1. An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) – confidentiality of commercial or industrial information applies to all of the information requested. This exception has been applied because release of project specific information before procurement would provide potential bidders insight into the project technical requirements, business case and procurement strategy. This would undermine Abertay University’s ability to run a fair, competitive process and could distort the market.

2. I attach some of the information requested in Annex A and Attachment A.

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(5)(e) – confidentiality of commercial or industrial information also applies to some of this information. This exception has been applied because release of project specific information provided to Scottish Government subsequent to initial application submission but before procurement would provide potential bidders insight into the project technical requirements, business case and procurement strategy. This would undermine Abertay University’s ability to run a fair, competitive process and could distort the market.

3. An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) – internal communications applies to all of the information requested. This exception has been applied because releasing internal assessment documents which have not been concluded and communicated with the applicant would have a detrimental impact on the future progression of the project and will inhibit an appropriate and fair assessment.

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, because it is vital to ensure a full and thorough assessment can take place and reduce harm to commercial interests that would be caused by release of internal Scottish Government assessment documentation.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) – confidentiality of commercial or industrial information also applies to some of this information. This exception has been applied because release of project specific information quoted in internal assessment documentation before procurement would provide potential bidders insight into the project technical requirements, business case and procurement strategy. This would undermine Abertay University’s ability to run a fair, competitive process and could distort the market.

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 202500482992 - Information Released - Annex A

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PDF

File size

3.4 MB

EIR 202500482992 - Information Released - Attachment A

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PDF

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388.5 kB