Scotland’s share of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource: EIR release

Information requested

All internal Scottish Government discussion (including between Ministers, Civil Servants, and Special Advisers) relating to the question of Scotland’s share of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource, restricting the search to dates between 6th May 2021 and 20th October 2022. You also indicated how to narrow down your request: “If this proves to be too wide a request, please narrow down to all discussion of whether an estimate for this figure should be included in Building a New Scotland - A stronger economy with independence – published by the Scottish Government on 17th October 2022.

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

As you have acknowledged, we are unable to provide information relating to the first part of your request, asking for all internal Scottish Government discussion (including between Ministers, Civil Servants, and Special Advisers) relating to the question of Scotland’s share of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource, restricting the search to dates between 6th May 2021 and 20th October 2022. 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 at: https://www.itspublicknowledge.info/eirs-exceptions 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”.

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 general public interest in disclosing information about Scottish Government policy as part of an open and transparent government and to inform public debate, 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.

In your request, you have made a suggestion reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable by narrowing down to all discussion of whether an estimate for this figure should be included in Building a New Scotland - A stronger economy with independence – published by the Scottish Government on 17th October 2022.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

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.

A further exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between civil servants about potential future policy that has not yet been agreed.

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, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can have free and frank discussions about policy. It is clearly in the public interest that policy decisions are robustly debated and scrutinised. Premature disclosure of this type of information could lead to a reduction in the comprehensiveness and frankness of such advice and views in the future, which would not be in the public interest.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Correspondence - 202200325962

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