Energy Consents Unit communications regarding Rogerhill Farm: EIR release

Information requested

I wish to be provided with full details of all communications between any and all employees or representatives of Quair, Wardell Armstrong, SPEN, Craig Cross and the Energy Consents Unit regarding the submission of an application document entitled “ Proposed Layout Rev Q” received by the ECU on 2/4/26 and uploaded to the ECU portal on 28/5/26.

Please include all correspondence regarding the sp substation now added to that plan and all correspondence regarding planning considerations regarding it.

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.

Please find attached Annex A which contains some of the information that we are able to provide in response to your request. The information provided in this response reflects the information held by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) at the date your request was received (03 June 2026).

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:

• regulation 6(1)b of the EIRs (publicly available information)
• regulation 10(4)a of the EIRs (information not held)
• regulation 10(5)g of the EIRs (protection of the environment)
• regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information)

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) applies to some of the information, as we are not required to provide information which is already publicly available and easily accessible in another form or format. For information relating to this case, please visit: Scottish Government – Energy Consents Unit – Application Details. This includes relevant published documents relating to this project.

This exception is subject to the public interest test. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances, we have considered whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception, as the information is already publicly available.

An exception under regulation 10(4)a applies to some of the information. Following appropriate searches, we can confirm that the ECU does not hold any correspondence relating to the planning considerations for the Scottish Power (SP) substation. Accordingly, there is no information available for release.

For clarity, the ECU administers the application and consultation process on behalf of Scottish Ministers and seeks views from relevant statutory consultees and other interested parties to inform the Ministers' decision. Matters relating to planning considerations fall within the remit of the relevant local planning authority, who are consulted as part of the ECU process.

This exception is subject to the public interest test. Taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in disclosure, we have concluded that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception, as the Scottish Government cannot provide information which it does not hold.

An exception under regulation 10(5)g applies to some of the information. This allows a Scottish public authority to withhold environmental information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, cause substantial prejudice to the protection of the environment.

This exception is subject to the public interest test. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

We recognise that there is some public interest in disclosure, as it would provide transparency and increase public participation in decision making. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the environment. Disclosure of the information would significantly risk harm coming to species protected under legislation, and we have therefore concluded that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

An exception under regulation 11(2) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, and disclosure would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exception is not subject to the public interest test, and therefore we are not required to consider whether the public interest in disclosure 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 202600519860 - Information released - Annex A

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