Orkney Community Wind Farm project correspondence: EIR release

Information requested

All correspondence (external and internal emails, WhatsApp messages, internal communications, minutes of meetings, briefing notes, reports etc) from the Scottish Government relating to the Orkney Community Wind Farm project from 2018 up to and including 2024.

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.

Much of the information you have requested is available online at:

DPEA online case for Quanterness: https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=121000
DPEA online case for Hoy: https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=121230
DPEA online case for Faray: https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=121825

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. A redacted copy of information you requested, which is not available online at the above web addresses, is enclosed.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs applies to some of the information requested. A Scottish public authority can withhold environmental information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, cause substantial prejudice to the interests of a person who provided information voluntarily to the Government. The exception has been applied as the information is not in scope of the request, the information is regarding a different subject matter, therefore, will not form part of the response to the EIR request.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information requested. The personal data of a third party has been removed, namely a signature, which should not be disclosed as part of a request for information. Both exceptions are 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.

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.

EIR 202400427317 - Information released - Annex

File type

162 page PDF

File size

11.0 MB