Communications between Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government regarding the Offshore Solutions Group (OSG): EIR release

Information requested

Under the FOI Act 2002 and EIR Regulations 2004 I seek the following with regard to the company Offshore Solutions Group (“OSG”) and their proposals for there to be a storage offshore facility in the Inner Moray Firth (known as “MorayFLOW Park”), namely copies of all of the following:

1. All communications between OSG and Scottish Government Ministers (SG) and the Marine Directorate of the SG, including emails, notes of phone calls, letters and the like.

2. All submissions or other advice from officials and/or the Marine Directorate to SG.

3. All communications between Scottish Enterprise and SG regarding OSG.

4. All communications between the Crown Estate Commission and SG.

5. Notes, minutes and records of any meetings, discussions, conference calls or phone calls between OSG and any Scottish Government Minister and/or official.

Response

Questions 1, 2 & 5

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception here says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

In this case, carrying out Questions 1, 2 & 5 of your request under the EIRs would impose a significant resource and cost burden on the Scottish Government due to the volume of materials that would be considered as a part of said request. For this reason, we consider that said questions are manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing these under regulation 10(4)(b).

It may help if I explain that searches conducted of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system as part of the response to Questions 1, 2 & 5 of your request identified 2,537 documents that may potentially be within scope and would require to be reviewed in order to identify any relevant information.

As the exception is conditional we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing 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 relating to offshore wind projects in Scotland, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.

You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it more manageable due to the number of items identified that would be potentially within the scope of your request based on the criteria you have provided. For example this could be by providing a specific date range required and/or requesting information relating to a particular policy area within the Scottish Government. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website here.

Question 3

I have included copies of the information you have requested in the attached Annex (B).

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in the attached Annex (A).

Question 4

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the specific information you have requested as we hold no records of any communications between the Scottish Government and the Crown Estate Commission regarding the Moray FLOW-Park development. Therefore, with respect to your request this is a formal notice under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that as part of the response to your request we have conducted a search of the Scottish Government’s main records filing system and have been unable to locate the information requested. I would also note that a search request was submitted to Scottish Government Officials which also resulted in no information being identified that would be within the scope of your request.

I wish to highlight that the searches conducted searched for materials between the Scottish Government and the Crown Estate Commission (CEC), for the purposes of your request we have interpreted CEC to mean the Crown Estate.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Wider guidance on the Environmental Information regime can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document. Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

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 202600508304 - Information released - Annex A

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PDF

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114.1 kB

EIR 202600508304 - Information released - Annex B

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164.4 kB