SSE meetings regarding HND and ASTI frameworks projects: EIR release

Information requested

1. Dates of all meetings (face-to-face meetings, online, conference calls etc) held between 1st January 2022 and the present date between the Scottish Government (involving individual Ministers and/or officials, including staff of the Energy Consent Unit) and directors and/or staff of SSEN and/or SSE, relating to the proposed development of 400kV electricity transmission routes (new, upgraded and reinforced) in Scotland which are part of the HND and ASTI framework.

2. Minutes/minutes/action notes and similar relating to all meetings (face-to-face meetings, online, conference calls etc) held between 1st January 2022 and the present date between the Scottish Government (involving individual Ministers and/or officials, including staff of the Energy Consent Unit) and directors and/or staff of SSEN and/or SSE, relating to the proposed development of 400kV electricity transmission routes (new, upgraded and reinforced) in Scotland which are part of the HND and ASTI framework.

3. Copies of all correspondence (hard copy and digital) between 1st January 2022 and the present date between the Scottish Government (involving Ministers and/or officials, including staff of the Energy Consent Unit) and directors and/or staff of SSEN and/or SSE relating to problems/concerns in achieving the 2030 Net Zero targets of the UK Government and the Scottish Government in the context of the development of the HND and ASTI framework.

4. Copies of all reports (hard copy and digital) submitted between 1st January 2022 and the present date by directors and/or staff of SSEN and/or SSE to the Scottish Government (individual Ministers and/or officials, including staff of the Energy Consent Unit) relating to progress in the proposed development of 400kV electricity transmission routes (new, upgraded and reinforced) in Scotland which are part of the HND and ASTI framework.

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 publicinterest 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 enclose a copy of details of meetings with SSE where projects under the HND and ASTI frameworks may have been discussed, which you requested for Question 1 and the answer to Question 1 is detailed in the attached word document.

In my letter dated 28 September 2023 I asked if you could clarify your request due to the high volume of search results. In particular, I asked you if you could advise which particular project/s that you are interested to enable a more focussed search.

As I explained in that letter, I am currently unable to deal with your request in relation to Questions 2, 3 and 4 as the information you have initially requested is very broad and returns a high volume of documents which could be within scope of your request. 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:http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx 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”.

In this case, the costs and resources involved in complying with the request would be disproportionate because, to find the information requested, we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to SSE or SSEN. In addition, there are numerous potential 400kV projects that come under HND and ASTI frameworks hence the high volume of search results, and why a 20 working days extension to the response deadline (under regulation 7 of the EIRs) would still not make the request manageable. For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b).

As the exception applied to Questions 2, 3 and 4 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 some public interest in information about SSE HND and ASTI projects, 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.

You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable, for example detailing the particular HND and ASTI project/s that you are interested in, so that we can look for information in a more focussed way. We’re very keen to help you get the information you are interested in and would be happy to consider another request if you are able to help us understand what it is you are looking for. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesters’ on his website at: How do I ask for information? | Scottish Information Commissioner (itspublicknowledge.info).

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.

EIR 202300375304 - Information Released - Annex

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