EIR/202500471589 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Projects that have received funding from the Just Transition Fund: EIR release
Information requested
Details of all projects that have received funding from the Scottish Government's Just Transition Fund to the current date. This should include the name of the organisation that received the money, the amount received, the project they received it for, and any progress reports they have provided the Scottish Government since they received public funding. If these progress reports don't exist, or are too costly to compile, please limit the response to this request to the first three questions. I'd like this information in excel format sent to the above email address.
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 most of the information you requested.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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.
In addition, further exemptions apply. We are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception(s) under regulation(s): 10(5)(e) - Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information of the EIRs applies to that information & 10(5)(f) - Prejudicial to interests of person who provided information / Prejudicial to interests of third party / Sensitive Information regarding development of an ongoing project(s). As the exceptions is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing information outweighs the public interest in applying the exceptions. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exceptions. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about development of the successful Just Transition Fund projects to date, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the ongoing development of the projects.
As the latter two exceptions are conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing information outweighs the public interest in applying the exceptions. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exceptions. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about development of the successful Just Transition Fund projects to date, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the ongoing development of the projects.
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. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party 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.