Virtual Public Energy Agency: EIR release

Information requested

1. What progress reports have been conducted regarding the development of a virtual Public Energy Agency?

2. When will a virtual Public Energy Agency be active?

3. What is the creation cost for the virtual Public Energy Agency?

4. What is the operating cost for the virtual Public Energy Agency each financial year?

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.

I outline the answers to your questions below:

1. What progress reports have been conducted regarding the development of a virtual Public Energy Agency?

The Scottish Government has not issued any public progress reports regarding the development of a virtual Public Energy Agency. Updates have however been made to Ministers, MSPs and the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee.

I have provided five PDF documents which comprises briefing updates to Ministers which were in scope of question one of your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some sections of the briefings requested by question one of your request. Therefore, some lines within the briefings have been redacted because exceptions under the following regulations of the EIRs applies to sections of information contained within the documents.

Regulation 10(4)(e) – internal communications

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to some of the information you have requested because it is internal communication between Scottish Government Ministers and officials about the governance arrangements, functions and next steps for the Energy Agency which are potential policy decisions still to be made.

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, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on the governance arrangements, functions and next steps for the Energy Agency will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.

Regulation 11(2) – personal data of a third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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.

In addition, in order to enable a succinct response to your particular query, sections of briefings in scope of question one of your request have been redacted if they are out of scope of the request and add no value to the release. This is in order to make it easier to access the specific information requested.

The links to two letters, four parliamentary questions and a previous FOI reply in scope of question one have also been provided below. This is as, 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. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

• Correspondence from Cab Sec to convener NZET committee – National Public Energy Agency (6 May 2022) - Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero Energy and Transport (parliament.scot)
• Correspondence from Cab Sec to Convener of NZET Committee - National Public Energy Agency (26 October 2022) - Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero Energy and Transport (parliament.scot)
• Written question and answer: S6W-11746 | Scottish Parliament Website
• Written question and answer: S6W-10172 | Scottish Parliament Website
• Written question and answer: S6W-10173 | Scottish Parliament Website
• Written question and answer: S6W-06416 | Scottish Parliament Website
• Briefings regarding National Public Energy Agency: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

2. When will a virtual Public Energy Agency be active?

The Virtual Public Energy Agency was launched on 26 October 2022.

3. What is the creation cost for the virtual Public Energy Agency?

The cost of the creation of the virtual Public Energy Agency has been undertaken within current departmental budgets, this includes publications and costs for board members, of which falls below a combined value £10,000.

4. What is the operating cost for the virtual Public Energy Agency each financial year?

The operating cost for the virtual Public Energy Agency is contained within the Heat in Buildings programmes operating budget, this forms part of the annual Scottish budget published each year, the budget for the programme falls within the Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation level 2 of the Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition portfolio.

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 202400392718 - Information Released - Annex

File type

29 page PDF

File size

625.0 kB