EIR/202500473687 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund documentation: EIR release
Information requested
1. A copy of the report from Salix Finance regards the applications submitted to Phase 2 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund, including the following information (or if it is not provided yet, details of when it will be made available):
a. Name of the applicant public body b. Address of the building to be decarbonised c. Value of the building before the works d. Estimated total cost of the proposed works e. A short description of the proposed works f. Amount of grant sought g. Amount of grant to be awarded
2. Copies of the submission to Ministers and exchange of emails, letters, correspondence or calls and any minutes of meetings by officials, Ministers and/or Special Advisers regarding the decision taken to proceed with Phase 2 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund.
3. Copies of documents comprising any analysis of Phase 1 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund, its performance and value money, and covering issues of value for money for the public purse, such as where the amount of the costs of the works were in excess of, or over one half of, the value of the buildings subject to the decarbonisation scheme works.
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.
I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of 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. This exception applies to some of the information you have requested and the reasons why are explained in Annex A.
Additionally, we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested as an exception under regulation 10(4)(e) of the EIRs (internal communications) applies to that information. The reasons why this exception applies are explained in Annex A.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) also applies to some the information you have requested because it is personal data of officials under senior civil service level and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
‘[Redacted] – Outwith Scope of Request]’ has been applied to some of the information where this is outwith the scope of your request as it does not refer to the applications submitted to Phase 2 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund, the decision taken to proceed with Phase 2 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund or analysis of Phase 1 of Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund.
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.
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. 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.