Building a New Scotland publication: EIR release

Information requested

On 17th October, the Scottish Government published Building a New Scotland - A stronger economy with independence. It included this statement: “With full powers, an independent Scotland could ensure the lower cost of renewables is passed through to customers, with the price of electricity more accurately reflecting our abundant, low-cost renewable resources.”

Please disclose all the assumptions, data, and analysis which justify this statement. In particular:

(1.) Would an independent Scotland remove itself from the single GB electricity market?

(2.) What is the assumed cost of Scottish renewables?

(3.) What is the assumed cost of whatever backup solution is proposed for when the wind doesn’t blow?

(4.) What is the counterfactual against which the total cost of Scottish renewables plus backup is being compared against?

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.

In 2022, when the paper was published, UK domestic electricity prices were amongst the highest in Europe. The paper touched on how high electricity prices (which countries in the European Union are also working to address) could be addressed with independence.

With respect to your first question on the single GB electricity market, I enclose at Annex A a copy of some of the information you have requested. I also refer you to our response to your related question of 3 September 2023 (202300374280) which concerned energy bills in an independent Scotland. 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 an exception under regulation 10 (4) (e) (internal communications) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in Annex B to this letter.

In respect of your second, third and fourth questions, again while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the information you have requested is not currently held by the Scottish Government. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. This is also explained in Annex B.

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.

FOI - 202300378553 - Information released - Annex A and Annex B

File type

3 page PDF

File size

139.3 kB