Investigation demanded after ‘cynical’ attempt by First Minister to dismiss code of conduct breaches

Climate campaigners have demanded a full investigation into complaints about breaches of the Ministerial Code after the First Minister issued a ‘cynical’ response of ‘inconsistencies, weak excuses and providing no evidence to support its claims.’ 

Friends of the Earth Scotland wrote to John Swinney in July evidencing repeated breaches of the Ministerial Code in connection with the Scottish Government’s handling of a planning application for a new fossil fuel power station with carbon capture at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. 
 
Energy companies SSE and Equinor submitted a planning application for a new gas-burning power station in February 2022 and it is still under consideration by the Scottish Government.  

The Ministerial Code sets out how Ministers should act in the handling of planning applications and states that, to make sure the planning system is fair, Ministers “must do nothing which might be seen as prejudicial to that process”. 

After consideration of the Government’s response, the climate charity has written to the First Minister (5/9/24) calling for a formal investigation into 27 breaches of the code.

Analysis of the First Minister’s response 

Climate campaigners identified these issues from the First Minister’s response:  

• John Swinney fails to adequately address concerns over then First Minister Humza Yousaf’s visit to Peterhead and accompanying press release and tweet. Yousaf appeared in an SSE promotional video in SSE branded clothes and endorsed the Acorn carbon capture project which Swinney admits is ‘interdependent’ on the Peterhead gas project. Emails obtained through Freedom of Information Requests show Humza Yousaf’s special advisor told him the “focus of the visit was SSE proposals for CCS energy plant.”  
• The FM claims that a quote from then Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Michael Matheson, in an SSE press release in May 2022 about the supposed economic benefits of the Peterhead gas project “does not speak directly to the application”. Matheson’s quote states: “The innovative Peterhead CCGT Power Station is a fantastic example of how Scotland’s energy sector can make the transition to net zero.” 
  
• The FM tries to dismiss a dozen meetings between Ministers and the energy companies by saying that they are party political or constituency business, again without offering any evidence to support this claim.  
  
• The FM has failed to respond to the accusation that the developers are being treated differently from objectors. Ministers met with SSE + Equinor over 60 times, compared to just 10 meetings with Friends of the Earth Scotland in a comparable period. 
  
• Ministers were repeatedly briefed by civil servants to offer support for the developers and/or the project. Bizarrely, the FM claims that “being in receipt of official briefing is a passive act on the part of Ministers… Ministers cannot act in breach of the Code if they themselves have not undertaken the action.” There is no record of any Minister asking for changes to these briefings or thorough minutes of the meetings that refute the content of the briefings.  
• Elsewhere in his response, the FM claims the opposite: that in one instance because a briefing included a warning that there was a live planning application that this was evidence that the Ministerial Code was in fact being followed.  

‘Complaint must be escalated’

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s head of campaigns Imogen Dow said: 
“This is a deeply cynical attempt by the Scottish Government to judge itself clear of repeated and substantial breaches of the Ministerial Code in relation to the handling of a planning application for new fossil fuel burning at Peterhead. This defensive response, which has literally been signed off by the First Minister, is full of inconsistencies, weak excuses and provides no new evidence to support its claims.  

“At times this response borders on the absurd. We are being expected to believe that Ministers aren’t always Ministers, that civil servant briefings don’t influence the reader and when Ministers appear in promotional videos for a private company or are quoted in fawning press releases that they aren’t expressing an opinion about the project. 

“This complaint must be escalated because the public must be reassured that this planning application is being assessed fairly. The consequences of Ministers making the wrong decision and backing new fossil fuels will be felt in higher household bills, more families in fuel poverty and higher climate pollution for the next 25 years or more. At a time when the Scottish Government are rolling back on climate commitments elsewhere, we need to be assured that due process is being followed. 

“Workers and communities need a credible transition plan that can move Scotland to decent green jobs in renewables, not a dodgy project sustained by insider lobbying and a complete disregard for the rules.”