Grid infrastructure funding: EIR release

Information requested

A Fresh Start with Independence, published on 8th October 2025, does not explain who the Scottish Government believes would pay for grid infrastructure inside Scotland after independence. Is the Scottish Government’s position that Scottish bill payers would pay for the grid in an independent Scotland, or does it believe that bill payers outside Scotland might also pay?

If the Scottish Government does believe in that bill payers outside Scotland might pay for grid infrastructure inside an independent Scotland, please provide any information held by the Scottish Government on similar examples of this happening in other independent nations.

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 Scottish Government does not design, develop, commission, or maintain the electricity network or any grid infrastructure.

The electricity transmission and distribution network is owned and operated by Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) in the North of Scotland and by Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) in the Central Belt and South of  Scotland.

Network maintenance and development costs are paid for by consumers in the form of charges on bills. This is set by UK Government policy and the Scottish Government has no powers to amend or adjust these fees.

The UK energy regulator, Ofgem, is responsible for regulating the energy market for consumers and licences of generators and distributors.

In the event of Scotland becoming an independent country, decisions about regulation of the electricity network would ultimately be a matter for the elected government of the day.

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.