Publication - FOI/EIR release

Inch Cape Offshore Windfarm Development and Onshore Development: EIR release

Published: 14 June 2018
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Marine and fisheries, Public sector

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

FOI reference: FOI/18/01115
Date received: 11 April 2018
Date responded: 13 June 2018

Information requested

'Can you please provide all correspondence between Scottish Government Ministers/officials and the Red Rock Limited regarding the Inch Cape Offshore Windfarm Development and associated Onshore development in East Lothian?

In email dated 01st May 2018 you requested information "over the past 12 months.'

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EISRs), 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.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the Scottish Government will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright material on the OPSI website at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/.

Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non-Crown Copyright) information.

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

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Marine Scotland website at:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Licensing/marine/scoping/ICOLRevised-2017.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EISRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 exceptions under regulations 10(4)(d) (unfinished or incomplete information) and 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EISRs apply to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained below.

Reasons for not providing information

Exceptions that apply.

Exceptions under regulations 10(4)(d) (unfinished or incomplete information) and 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EISRs apply to some of the information you have requested.

Regulation 10(4)(d) – unfinished or incomplete information.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EISRs (unfinished or incomplete information) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is unfinished draft documents.

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. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished or incomplete information which is still in being worked on or is under active consideration 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.

Regulation 11(2) – personal information of a third party.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EISRs (personal information of a third party) 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.

Due to the file size of the documents released, copies of the remaining documents can be provided on request by emailing ceu@gov.scot, quoting the FOI reference number FOI/18/01114.

Summary:

Correspondence between the Scottish Government and Red Rock power Limited between the 12th of April 2017 and the 11th of April 2018 regarding the Inch Cape Offshore Windfarm development and associated onshore development in East Lothian.

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