Offshore Oil & Gas licensing: EIR release

Information requested

"Please provide details of the steps included in the Scottish Government proposed assessment including, the assessment methodology, how long the assessment would take? Who would undertake the assessment and what criteria would be used to determine whether it met the 'journey to NetZero' conditions that he mentioned.".

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 answer to your question is Offshore Oil & Gas licensing is reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government has, through its draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, called for a robust Climate Compatibility Checkpoint to be applied to new North Sea oil and gas developments. The draft Strategy (published here - Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) set out for consultation a range of proposals on aspects of Checkpoint design and application. Independent analysis commissioned by the Scottish Government (published here – Energy system and Just Transition: independent analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) in support of the draft Strategy also included consideration of what tests could potentially make up such a Checkpoint. The Scottish Government has set out the intention to publish a finalised Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan this summer.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.