Limekiln wind farm resubmission, peat slide risk assessment: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01452
Date received: 26 June 2017
Date responded: 11 July 2017

Information requested

1. A form of words that has been previously used by the Energy Consents Unit to state that peat landslide hazard risk assessment (PSHRA) issues must be addressed pre-consent

2. The PSHRA document produced for Limekiln in the April 2014 Further Environmental Information (FEI)

3. CH2M's consultation response (a letter) dated 30 September 2014 commenting on the April 2014 FEI

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

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

The answer to your first question is that the Scottish Government and Heads of Planning Scotland Energy and Resources Sub-Committee have agreed that peat landslide risk should be assessed as part of the EIA process to ascertain whether the environmental risk is acceptable, prior to consent being granted. Ministers require a clear understanding of whether the risks are acceptable and capable of being controlled before considering the terms of conditions attached to any consent they may grant.

A copy of the PSHRA document produced for Limekiln in the April 2014 Further Environmental Information (FEI) is enclosed with this letter.

Documents released

• Limekiln Wind Farm Environmental Statement

Due to the file size of the documents released, copies can be provided on request by emailing ceu@gov.scot, quoting the FOI reference number FOI/17/01452.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request for CH2M's consultation response (a letter) dated 30 September 2014 commenting on the April 2014 FEI under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested concerning the company CH2M's consultation response (a letter) dated 30 September 2014 commenting on the April 2014 FEI.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the company's view on the April 2014 FEI, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

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