Energy Consents Unit: EIR release

Information requested

1. A list of all the Scottish government ministers who are involved or have involvement with the Energy Consents Unit.
2. Confirmation that an ECU decision making committee or similar exists, and if so how often does it sit.
3. Confirmation that Scottish government ministers are involved or attend ECU decision making committees in regards granting consent and are not just a final signatory.
4. A list of all ministers who have or can sign off on any ECU final decisions with regards granting consent on planning applications.
5. How many ECU consent decisions have been given where a local public Inquiry has advised consent to be denied.

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.

The answers to your questions are:

1. Energy Consents are one of the responsibilities of Gillian Martin, Minister for Climate Action. You can read more on the specific responsibilities of the Minister at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/about/who-runs-government/cabinet-and-ministers/minister-for-climateaction/
2. Paragraph 2.4 of The Scottish Ministerial Code notes that “the internal processes through which a Government decision has been made should not normally be disclosed. Such decisions are, however, normally announced and explained as the decision of the Minister concerned.”
3. As per answer 2.
4. Most of the functions exercisable by Ministers are conferred upon the Scottish Ministers collectively. However, these functions do not require to be exercised jointly by all the Scottish Ministers. Section 52(3) of the Scotland Act provides that any member of the Government can exercise any of the functions of the Scottish Ministers, and Section 52(4) provides that any act or omission of any member of the Government is legally the act or omission of each of them. Where Ministers have to take decisions within their area of portfolio responsibility which might have an impact on their own constituency or region, they must take particular care to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Paragraph 7.5 onwards of the Scottish Ministerial Code, sets out the options available where this issue presents itself.
5. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because there is no business need to maintain a database of the information you have requested. 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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about applications recommended for refusal by a local public inquiry but otherwise given consent, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.