EIR/202600505645 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Total live energy applications awaiting determination by Scottish Ministers: EIR release
Information requested
Please provide the following information as of the date this request is processed:
1. The total number of live applications currently awaiting determination by Scottish Ministers via the Energy Consents Unit.
2. Of those live applications, how many have been awaiting determination for:
a) more than 6 months b) more than 12 months c) more than 18 months d) more than 24 months
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 as follows:
The confirmed total number of live applications currently under review and awaiting determination by Scottish Ministers as of 03 March 2026 is 184.
Live applications awaiting determination:
0 – 6 months 29 6 – 12 months 40 12 – 18 months 36 18 – 24 months 27 Above 24 months 52
This figure reflects only full applications that have been formally submitted and are currently under review and awaiting determination in line with the scope of your request. It does not include the wider volume of pre‑application and in‑progress casework that the Energy Consents Unit is also managing, as these fall outside the definition of “live applications awaiting determination” but form a significant part of our operational workload.
The Energy Consents Portal holds the official records of all energy applications received by the Energy Consents Unit. It provides full transparency by publishing all documents associated with each application, including decisions. You can view the number of live applications directly through the Portal.
From the main page of the website, select the ‘Search’ tab and then choose ‘Advanced Search’. You can then filter applications by case type and status before selecting ‘Go’, which will return the relevant search results. These results can be exported in a range of file formats for further analysis. For clarity, you can refine your search by selecting the case type (development), followed by project type and then the case status. 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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
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.
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