Energy Consents Unit (ECU) application statistics: EIR release

Information requested

The percentage of all applications that are submitted to the ECU under Section 36 and Section 37 that have been consented, withdrawn and rejected by the ECU across Scotland.

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.

To answer your question, we used application data held within the energyconsents.scot online portal. This data was pulled on 24 April 2024. The answer to your question is as follows:

There are 1213 Section 36 and Section 37 applications for Development or Variation on the energyconsents.scot online portal. 795 (63.6%) have been consented, 95 (7.6%) have been withdrawn and 43 (3.4%) have been refused.

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.