Publication - FOI/EIR release

Necessary Wayleave Application correspondence: EIR release

Published: 27 August 2020
Directorate: Legal Services (Solicitor to the Scottish Government)
Topic: Building, planning and design, Energy, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000065941 / FOI/202000066513 / FOI/202000067102
Date received: 23 July 2020
Date responded: 31 July 2020

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

Information requested

Over the 3 requests you asked for the following :

WAY-340-4 - I would like to receive copies of all documents and correspondence held by the government's Planning and Environmental Appeals Division regarding their case reference WAY-340-4 which concerned a Necessary Wayleave Application Under Schedule 4 To The Electricity Act 1989 For The Retention Of An Existing 275kv Overhead Transmission Line (Application Ref 15/2017). I am particularly interested in receiving copies of documents and/or correspondence relating to the wayleave agreement and any documents and/or correspondence outlining the reasons the application for necessary wayleave had to be made and the reasons the application was then subsequently withdrawn.

WAY-340-5 - I would like to receive copies of all documents and correspondence held by the government's Planning and Environmental Appeals Division regarding their case reference WAY-340-5 which concerned a Necessary Wayleave Application Under Schedule 4 To The Electricity Act 1989 For The Retention Of An Existing 132kv Overhead Transmission Line (Application Ref 16/2017). I am particularly interested in receiving copies of documents and/or correspondence relating to the wayleave agreement and any documents and/or correspondence outlining the reasons the application for necessary wayleave had to be made and the reasons the application was then subsequently withdrawn.

WAY-340-6 - I would like to receive copies of all documents and correspondence held by the government's Planning and Environmental Appeals Division regarding their case reference WAY-340-6 which concerned a Necessary Wayleave Application Under Schedule 4 To The Electricity Act 1989 For The Retention Of Existing 11kv Overhead And Underground Distribution Lines (Application Ref 17/2017). I am particularly interested in receiving copies of documents and/or correspondence relating to the wayleave agreement and any documents and/or correspondence outlining the reasons the application for necessary wayleave had to be made and the reasons the application was then subsequently withdrawn.

Response

If I might firstly clarify that 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.

I confirm that the information published during the appeal(s) has been republished to our website for your convenience. I attach 3 links below. This information will remain published for a period of 1 month to allow you to view. If you require more time please let me know. In addition to the republication I have also attached guidance about how to download the documents to your own device from our website, I hope this is of some assistance.

http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=118149 - WAY-340-4
http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=118150 - WAY-340-5
http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=118151 - WAY-340-6

Please also find attached documents numbered 1 to 12 which formed part of the administrative processes of the cases in question. Please note the attached documents cover all 3 cases because the cases were conjoined and progressed together.

No other information is held by DPEA other than as specified above.

Please note some of the information contained within the documents provided have been redacted in some instances this is because it is outwith the scope of your request and in others as some of the information falls within the exception at Regulation 11(2) of the EIR;s (personal information ) as that information is personal data and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulations an din 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 this information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

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.