EIR/202500463951 Review of 202500459920 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Balnespick and Clune Windfarm Environmental Impact Assessment annexes: EIR Review
Information requested
Original request 202500459920
Access to Environmental Impact Assessment annexes which are marked as confidential, for applications under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the Balnespick Wind Farm (ECU0004904) and Clune Wind Farm (ECU0005038).
Response
I have now completed my review of our response to your request, handled under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), for access to Environmental Impact Assessment annexes which are marked as confidential, for applications under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the Balnespick Wind Farm (ECU0004904) and Clune Wind Farm (ECU0005038).
I have concluded that a different decision should be made and that the information requested should be partially released.
I have reconsidered the exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) of the EIRs that was applied and have found that the exception was previously applied to the documents requested as a whole, without considering whether there was any information within those annexes, for which the automatic assumption should be for them to be released. I have therefore been through the annexes line by line and found that whilst there is some information to which the exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) does apply, there is also information within them that can be released.
An exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the protection of the environment to which the information relates. Disclosure of this information would substantially prejudice protection of the environment because nest, roosting or holt / set locations can be used to persecute protected species.
This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have reconsidered 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because disclosure would provide transparency and increase public participation in decision making. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in protecting the environment. Disclosure of the information by Ministers significantly risks harm coming to species protected under legislation.
The information, which is being released is the information within the confidential annexes, which is not in itself confidential.
This review has found that the original request was not properly handled, in that a blanket exception was applied to all of the documents, and the content was not scrutinised to ascertain whether it could be released. I must apologise for this and shall inform those involved in the original request in order to avoid a recurrence.
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
Information requested Original request 202500459920 Access to Environmental Impact Assessment annexes which are marked as confidential, for applications under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the Balnespick Wind Farm (ECU0004904) and Clune Wind Farm (ECU0005038). Response I have now completed my review of our response to your request, handled under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), for access to Environmental Impact Assessment annexes which are marked as confidential, for applications under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the Balnespick Wind Farm (ECU0004904) and Clune Wind Farm (ECU0005038). I have reconsidered the exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) of the EIRs that was applied and have found that the exception was previously applied to the documents requested as a whole, without considering whether there was any information within those annexes, for which the automatic assumption should be for them to be released. I have therefore been through the annexes line by line and found that whilst there is some information to which the exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) does apply, there is also information within them that can be released. An exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.