Safety of battery energy storage facilities correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

1. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and the office of the First Minister regarding the safety of battery energy storage facilities. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025 inclusive.

2. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between the office of the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy regarding the safety of battery energy storage facilities. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025 inclusive.

3. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between either the office of the Minister for Victims and Community Safety or the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy and the leadership team at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding the safety of battery energy storage facilities. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025 inclusive.

4. Any correspondence (including emails, letters, phone calls, handwritten notes, WhatsApp messages or any other documents) between any Scottish Government official with a rank of Deputy Director or higher and the leadership team at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service regarding the safety of battery energy storage facilities. Information should include but not be limited to a detailed timeline (with dates) of any contact between these individuals. Please provide this information between the dates of 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025 inclusive.

Response

I enclose a copy of some the information you requested, titled Annex A. This is a letter from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. It includes a reference to Battery Energy Storage Systems and is therefore relevant to point 3 of your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance, having carried out the relevant searches, we have not identified any information that you have requested in points 1, 2, or 4 of your request. Therefore, we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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. The Scottish Government does not have 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the safety of Battery Energy Storage System sites, 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.

FOI 202500457032 - Information released - Annex A

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