Offshore energy safety documentation: EIR release

Information requested

All internal documents including notes, briefings, agendas, minutes, slides and/or attendance lists of all meetings held about offshore energy safety from 01/01/2024.

Additionally, could you please provide the number of health and safety incidents reported to Ministers at each wind farm (both offshore and onshore). Please break the numbers down by year starting from 2020.

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 some of the information you requested in Annex A. This relates to the first part of your request which asks for ‘all internal documents including notes, briefings, agendas, minutes, slides and/or attendance lists of all meetings held about offshore energy safety from 01/01/2024’. On reviewing materials within scope of your request some exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. You can find information on the exceptions that have been applied to information in Annex B.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) (information not held) of the EIRs applies. Under the terms of this exception, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

With regards to the second part of your request, our searches have identified two incidents reported to Scottish Ministers in the period from 2020 – these are as follows: Viking Wind Farm, Shetland in 2022 and 2024. However, as health and safety is the remit of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) the Scottish Government does not hold an internal log of incidents per year.

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) I would like to provide guidance on where you may be able to find the “information not held” under regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

You may wish to contact the Health and Safety Executive who might be able to assist you with comprehensive information on the total number of health and safety incidents at wind farms.

Annex B

The following exceptions have been applied and are not subject to the public interest test:

Regulation 11(2) – Personal Data

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exception under Regulation 11, personal data, has been applied to some of the information requested. Information has been redacted under Regulation 11 (Personal Data), as it contains personal information and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and in Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’.

Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs - Information not held

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(4)(a) (information not held) of the EIRs applies. Under the terms of this exception, 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 health and safety incidents, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Regulation 10(5)(f) – Third party interests

Some information has been withheld under Regulation 10(5)(f) (third party interests). 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, disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of said information and the interests of those providing information to the Scottish Government in confidence.

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 202500492895 - Information released - Annex A

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