Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project at Nigg Bay marine licence 05965/16/0: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for:

1. “Copies of any and all revisions to Marine Licence  - Construction 05965/16/0 issued on 4 November 2016 including any revisions issued after 15 August 2018 by Marine Scotland (MS-LOT) in relation to blasting and/or drilling issued to Aberdeen Harbour Board for the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project at Nigg Bay
2. Copies of all Approval Letters or other authorization to proceed letters / messages issued by Marine Scotland (MS-LOT) to Aberdeen Harbour Board for marine drilling and/or blastng for the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project at Nigg Bay
3. Copies of all applications and submissions including Drilling & Blasting Methodology, CEMD or other construction methodologies submitted by Aberdeen Harbour Board and/or Dragados UK to Marine Scotland (MS-LOT) after 1 June 2018 in relation to blasting and/or drilling for the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project at Nigg Bay”

 

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.

Response to your  request

The information you have requested is available from: http://marine.gov.scot/ml/aberdeen-harbour-expansion, https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Licensing/marine/scoping/currentccnp/ahep and http://www.aberdeen-harbour.co.uk/south-harbour-development/south-harbour-nigg-bay-documents/. Specifically, marine licence 05965/16/0 is available from: http://marine.gov.scot/sites/default/files/00509291.pdf and no revisions to this licence have been made, nor have we received any new applications for construction and blasting.

The documents referred to in the marine licence requiring the approval of the licensing authority include the Construction Environmental Management Document (“CEMD”), amendments to a CEMD, Marine Mammal Protection Plan (“MMPP”), Construction Method Statement (“CMS”), Vessel Management Plan (“VMP”), monitoring strategy, amendments to the monitoring strategy, lighting and marking plan, protocol for archaeological discovery, landscape mitigation and compensation scheme and proposals for communication with the local community. The MMPP, VMP, monitoring strategy, lighting and marking plan, protocol for archaeological discovery, landscape mitigation and compensation scheme and proposals for communication with the local community are all part of the CEMD. In the CEMD the MMPP chapter is referred to as the Marine Mammal Mitigation Plan. This also includes drilling and blasting aspects. The CEMD can be found here: http://marine.gov.scot/datafiles/lot/AHEP/CEMD/. Updated CEMD chapters on drilling and blasting can be found here: http://marine.gov.scot/data/aberdeen-harbour-expansion-construction-environmental-management-document-cemd. The CMS can be found as part of the original Environmental Statement: http://marine.gov.scot/datafiles/lot/ahep/ (Volume 2, Chapter 3).

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.  

 

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.