Foresterhill Deep Geothermal Feasibility study report and supporting documents: EIR release

Information requested

1) Access to the full report of the Foresterhill Deep Geothermal Feasibility Study, commissioned by NHS Grampian and supported by the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Estates programme.

If the full report cannot be disclosed, we would appreciate any executive summaries, technical appendices, or decision-making documents related to the study. Please also advise if any exemptions apply and provide partial disclosure where possible.

2) In addition to the full Foresterhill Deep Geothermal Feasibility Study report (or summaries), I would also like to request any funding reports, grant applications, or financial summaries related to this project, including information on current or planned funding for the next phase.

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.

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 the following exceptions apply to that information:

• Regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information)
• Regulation 11(2) (Personal information)

Regulation 10(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information)

Regulation 10(5)(e) allows authorities to withhold information where 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.

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 recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, this information was sent to the Scottish Government on the understanding that it would be treated as being in confidence; it is highly technical and there is scope for the information to be misinterpreted; and it would significantly negatively impact the author's ability to carry out their work. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. 

Regulation 11(2) (Personal information)

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.

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 202500496833 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

5.8 MB