Hill of Fare Windfarm application: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request 202400402235

1) How many representations have been received by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) from 27 January until the deadline of 2 February?

2) Of these, how many representations have been received from members of the public and community organisations?

3) Of these, how many Object to the application and how many Support the application?

4) Does the ECU intend to publish all representations on their website and if so, by when?

5) How many objections and letters of support have been received since 2 February and will these be considered as part of the process?

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) for information in relation to the Hill of Fare wind farm project in Aberdeenshire.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

The request was correctly dealt with under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs). This is because the information you requested is 'environmental information' and therefore we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. The exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2022 (FOISA) was correctly applied, so that we did not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

I have concluded, however, that the exception at 10(4)(d) (incomplete data) of the EIRs was applied incorrectly and the information requested should have been released. Although the representations in question were still in the course of being processed, the information requested does not constitute incomplete data in terms of the exception at 10(4)(d) of the EIRs.

Therefore, I am now releasing the information requested.

You asked for the following information in relation to the Hill of Fare wind farm project in Aberdeenshire:

1) How many representations have been received by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) from 27 January until the deadline of 2 February?
2) Of these, how many representations have been received from members of the public and community  organisations?
3) Of these, how many Object to the application and how many Support the application?
4) Does the ECU intend to publish all representations on their website and if so, by when?
5) How many objections and letters of support have been received since 2 February and will these be considered as part of the process?

Response to your request

The answers to your request are noted below.
1) Our records indicate that 582 representations were received during this period.
2) 582 from members of the public. 0 from community organisations.
3) 582 object and 0 support.
4) The Energy Consents Unit endeavours to publish all representations on their website. The Energy Consents Unit does not have a target timescale for logging representations. Representations may be made to the Scottish Ministers in line with statutory timeframes set out in public notices, which require to be given in accordance with applicable regulations. Representations are managed such that the material issues raised within are always taken into account before any decision is taken by Scottish Ministers.

As no specific timescale is provided by the Energy Consents Unit for publishing representations on their website the exemption at regulation 10(4)(a), information not held, under the EIRs is being applied to the
request for when representations will be published as the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, I have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest
in applying the exception. I have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While I recognise that there may be some public interest in information requested, clearly we
cannot provide information which we do not hold.

5) Our records indicate that 47 objections and 262 letters of support have been received since 2 February.

This is the number between 3 February and 1 March, 1 March 2024 being the date of your initial request for information. Scottish Ministers will endeavour where possible to consider public representations
received after the statutory deadline, although there is no requirement for them to do so.

The information provided has been categorised in order to respond to the specific requests within this EIR. The date ranges applied to representations have been set on the basis of when these were received by the
Scottish Government. In the case of postal representations, this may be recorded some time following actual receipt of the representation due to the time taken to formally record these on our internal system.

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.