SEPA response to Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's letter
Date published: 03 September 2025
Thank you for your letter of 20 August 2025 of behalf of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament which was also published on your website.
I welcome the opportunity to clarify our position and provide additional factual context in response to the matters raised. In the shared interests of transparency, the text of this reply will also be published on our website.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is a non-departmental public body so is subject to freedom of information laws including the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. Both pieces of legislation have presumptions in favour of disclosure, which we demonstrate via our disclosure log.
However, the right to information is not absolute, there are various exemptions/exceptions, most of which are subject to the public interest test. It is for the public body who receives the request for information to apply these at its absolute discretion, as appropriate. SEPA is transparent in explaining its decision-making considerations as is apparent in the Scottish Information Commissioner’s appeal notices.
The Commissioner’s notices in relation to the issues raised in this correspondence regarding Mr Edward’s information requests, referenced 147/2005 and 148/2005, are available on the Scottish Information Commissioner website.
Regarding SEPA’s statutory role in relation to Clyde (Faslane and Coulport), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) operates under full Crown exemption for radioactive matters. This means SEPA has no legal vires in this context, and our engagement is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which is not legally binding. The MoD voluntarily aligns with civil arrangements and engages with SEPA on a cooperative basis, including applying for quasi-permits and following processes akin to those required under Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018, despite not being legally bound to do so.
In respect of the information that SEPA proactively publishes, there is no requirement to do so, but in conjunction with other agencies we publish our monitoring data, discharges, and assessment of the dose to the public via the UK Government website. Data on disposals and liquid disposals from Faslane is presented in the Excel sheets.
As a public body SEPA remains committed to openness and transparency in its decision-making and communications. We aim to publish accessible information to deliver on our statutory purpose and for Scotland.
You have suggested that it would be helpful to meet with SEPA to discuss these matters further. SEPA would be happy to facilitate to further discuss the concerns raised and ensure clarity and constructive engagement.