Publication - FOI/EIR release

H100 hydrogen demonstration project: EIR release

Published: 15 January 2024
Directorate: Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Topic: Public sector
FOI reference: 202200330567
Date received: 17 November 2022
Date responded: 19 January 2023

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

Any correspondence between Scottish Government officers and SGN --- or other hydrogen related groups like Gas Goes Green --- relating to the H100 hydrogen demonstration project in Levenmouth. This should include emails, texts, minutes of meetings and any other correspondence between the Scottish Government and SGN.

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.

Response

A copy of some of the information you requested has been attached, in the format you asked for.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is an unfinished document. Some of the documents within the scope of the EIR are draft documents, but the final versions of these documents have been included in the information released where available.

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 release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and the final versions of these documents have been included in this release where available. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information which was still being worked on is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by SGN and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. Disclosing information on the planning and ongoing development of the H100 project could substantially prejudice progress and future phases of the H100 project.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of SGN who provided that information to the Scottish Government. They:

were not under any legal obligation to give us that information;
did not supply it in circumstances in which it could, apart from the EIRs, be made available;
and have not consented to disclosure.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the interests of anyone, such as SGN, who provides the Scottish Government with information on a confidential basis. Disclosing such information against the express wishes of the stakeholder is likely to undermine their trust in the Government and make them reluctant in future to share information with us on issues such as the progress on this H100 project and other ongoing work around hydrogen and the gas network in Scotland. This would significantly impair the Scottish Government’s ability to develop policies and make decisions on the basis of fully informed advice and evidence. This would not be in the public interest.

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.

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