Scotland's push to become a global centre for AI infrastructure is being built on planning foundations that predate it.

National Planning Framework 4 sets out no enforceable definition of a “green data centre.”

No national energy strategy has been published since 2017, despite one being ready for Cabinet since May 2024.

Communities from Newarthill to Auchtertool report being told one story about jobs, renewables, and community benefit, while planning documents obtained under Freedom of Information show another.

Communities & voters generally are asking what we every candidate standing in the May 2027 council elections, and every sitting MSP and minister, to commit to make good the gaps in Energy Strategy.

It is not a call to reject data centre investment outright. It is a call for decisions to be made on an honest, evidenced, and accountable basis which is not what is happening now. Publish an enforceable definition of a “green data centre.”

NPF4 designates green data centres as a national development, but leaves planning authorities to interpret what “green” means case by case, with no binding criteria on renewable power sourcing, water consumption, or heat re-use.

We ask the Scottish Government to publish a fixed, enforceable definition before any further national development consent is granted.

Evidence: Scottish Parliament written answer S6W-41362 confirms no fixed criteria exist; planning authorities are left to “consider criteria” on a discretionary, case-by-case basis.

🧵 Why is Scotland suddenly facing 24+ hyperscale data centre proposals at once?

UK trade press just spelled out the actual reason and it isn’t Scotland’s tech ecosystem.

1/ LONDON IS FULL

More than 80% of the UK’s total data centre capacity already sits in and around London.

West London is now reaching saturation point on land and grid capacity, and Slough alone reportedly hosts up to 35 data centres.

2/

WE NEED THAT MORATORIUM NOW

The irrefutable argument
@Ross_Greer @ArianeBurgessHI @markruskell @DavidHTorrance

Scotland has a live, accelerating pipeline of 24 hyperscale data centre proposals requiring up to 6,000MW more than 1.5 times the country’s entire peak electricity demand being assessed against a planning framework that predates the technology it is meant to regulate, with no binding definition of the term the government uses to justify approval, no mandatory environmental assessment for most sites, no community right of appeal, no water standard, and no published account of what any of this will cost in grid capacity, household bills, or climate impact.

The government has been asked, formally and in writing, to pause.

It has a direct, recent precedent for doing exactly that. It has declined not because it disputes the facts, but because it has chosen not to act on them.

That is not a position.
It is an absence of one.

1. THE SCALE IS NOT MARGINAL IT IS DESTABILISING

24 proposals. Up to 6,000MW. Scotland’s current peak demand: approximately 4,000MW.

This was placed on the official parliamentary record by Ross Greer MSP on 18 June 2026 and was not disputed by the First Minister.

This is not a planning question about individual sites. It is a question about whether Scotland’s electricity system can absorb a demand increase larger than the system itself, decided one application at a time, with no body responsible for assessing the total.

2. THE GOVERNMENT’S OWN DEFINITION IS CIRCULAR

At FMQs on 18 June 2026, the First Minister defined a “green data centre” as one that “has been approved with due account taken of the environmental implications.”

A green data centre is one that has been approved as a green data centre. There is no threshold, no metric, no standard capable of being failed.

This is not a definition. It is the absence of one, dressed in the language of one!

3. THE EVIDENCE ALREADY EXISTS AND IT IS ALARMING

This is not a hypothetical risk. The developer’s own Environmental Impact Assessment for the Larbert data centre required because Larbert, unlike most sites, needed one found that routine generator testing alone would produce 288 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide and nitrous oxide annually, and that nearby homes, a hospital, and a nursery could be exposed to nitrogen dioxide levels of up to 8,800 micrograms per cubic metre 44 times the safe hourly limit.

This would rank a single “green” data centre among Scotland’s top 10 industrial polluters, ahead of Mossmorran and Peterhead.

This is not campaigners’ projection. It is the developer’s own modelling, submitted as part of a planning application, because the law required it.

4. THAT EVIDENCE IS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE

Six of the 24 current pipeline proposals have undergone no Environmental Impact Assessment at all confirmed by Ross Greer on the parliamentary record, unchallenged by the First Minister.

Auchtertool, at 600MW twice the size of Larbert requires no EIA.

If Larbert’s own documents reveal a potential top-10 polluter, the honest position is that nobody knows what the other six undisclosed sites would reveal, because nobody has been required to ask.

That is not an acceptable basis on which to grant irreversible planning consent. 5. THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THIS FRAMEWORK HAVE ALREADY BEEN TOLD IT IS INADEQUATE

In December 2025, Action to Protect Rural Scotland and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland formally requested a moratorium and a binding green definition.

Ministers responded in writing, acknowledging the concerns raised while declining every substantive request, redirecting instead to a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan with no confirmed delivery date.

Edinburgh City Council’s own planning officers not campaigners, the council’s own professional advisers confirmed it is “not possible to prohibit the submission of valid data centre applications which are supported by NPF4.”

On 17 June 2026, Edinburgh’s councillors voted against their own officials’ recommendation and called on the Scottish Government for a nationwide moratorium.

When a council’s own administration concludes the existing framework cannot function as intended, that is not political noise.

It is the system reporting its own failure.

6. THE PRECEDENT FOR ACTING ALREADY EXISTS AND WAS USED RECENTLY

In October 2017, facing a wave of speculative fracking applications, a 60,000-response public consultation in which 99% opposed the development, and sustained cross-party parliamentary pressure, Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told Parliament:

“Fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland.”

No new primary legislation.

A ministerial decision, using existing planning powers, in direct response to evidence of public harm and public opposition.

The Scottish Government has already demonstrated it knows how to do this. It is not asking a question without an established answer.

It already wrote the answer once, for a different industry, under the same legal framework.

7. THE POWER TO ACT REQUIRES NO PARLIAMENTARY VOTE

At FMQs, the First Minister said that “if the Parliament wishes there to be a fundamental change… it will have to have an open discussion about whether such powers should be exercised nationally.”

This is not legally accurate as a constraint. Scottish Ministers can publish supplementary planning guidance, issue a Planning Circular, or update NPF4 directly under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, without a parliamentary vote. NPF4 itself was made this way. It can be amended this way.

The claim that a moratorium requires Parliament’s permission is not a legal fact. It is a political choice, presented as a constraint.

Here’s some useful questions:

What could ScotGov actually do?

What have the Greens actually done (not just said)?

And where’s the international lever nobody’s pulling yet?

Thread. 🧵
1/ WHAT SCOTGOV SAYS, IN WRITING

“For clarity, the Scottish Government does not intend to introduce a moratorium on data centre developments.”

That’s not spin.

That’s their actual ministerial response to APRS.

They were asked directly.

They refused directly.

On the record.
2/

🧵 Scotland’s data centre pipeline isn’t just happening.

It’s driven by a public body Scottish Enterprise funded by Scottish taxpayers, accountable to Scottish Ministers.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.
1/ WHAT SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE ACTUALLY DOES HERE

In 2023, the Scottish Government appointed Scottish Enterprise as strategic delivery partner for the Green Data Centres Action Plan.

Its job: attract hyperscale data centre investment to Scotland.

It runs the “Green Data Support Service.”

It manages the shortlist of 20 potential sites.

It works with industry to “explore financing options.”

It is a promoter.

Not an assessor.
Not an independent regulator.
2/

Scotland’s energy being used for England’s data centres .

The Westminster Labour picture is now very clear.
The key Labour figures driving this into Scotland

Keir Starmer Prime Minister. Personally endorsed the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, stating “now is the time to put our foot on the accelerator” and framing it as creating “good, well-paid jobs” for working people.

Peter Kyle Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology July 2024 to September 2025. Personally announced Scotland as a key part of the UK’s AI opportunities plan, invoking the industrial revolution framing: “AI is this generation’s next great industrial leap.” He then moved to Secretary of State for Business and Trade in September 2025, succeeded at DSIT by Liz Kendall.

Liz Kendall Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from September 2025, previously Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. She personally travelled to Lanarkshire to announce the AI Growth Zone, declaring Scotland is “leading the technological revolution” and “I’m very, very proud Scotland is going to lead the world here.”

Rachel Reeves Chancellor. Named alongside Liz Kendall and Kirsty McNeill MP in the official government announcement of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. This means the Treasury has direct ownership of the designation.

Ian Murray Scottish Secretary. Called the announcement “a landmark moment” that will place Scotland at the forefront of the UK’s technological revolution, also referencing a separate £750 million supercomputer investment in Edinburgh.

Kirsty McNeill Scottish Labour MP, named in the official designation announcement.

Ed Miliband Energy Secretary. Data centres were designated Critical National Infrastructure in September 2024 a decision made on his watch.

By February 2026 he was telling MPs that the climate impact of data centres “remains inherently uncertain” a significant retreat from the promotional stance, triggered by parliamentary pressure. He has since been forced to respond to MPs who noted data centres were omitted from the Seventh Carbon Budget projections.

The civil servant who owns DSIT: Kamran Nazeer (pen name for Emran Mian CB OBE) Permanent Secretary of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology since July 2025. Born in Glasgow. Previously served under both Peter Kyle and Liz Kendall.

The structural picture
The AI Growth Zone scheme was set up by Peter Kyle in January 2025.

Scotland’s designation came under Liz Kendall in January 2026 with Starmer, Reeves, Murray and McNeill all named. The CNI designation that removed the planning brake came from Miliband’s department in September 2024.

This is not a Scottish Government initiative it is a Westminster Labour industrial strategy being applied to Scotland, with Scottish Labour figures providing the local political cover.

The AI Growth Zone designation, the CNI designation, and the AI Opportunities Action Plan are all Westminster decisions cascading into Scottish planning without the Scottish Government having meaningful power to resist them, regardless of what Holyrood’s own policy says.

It’s a Westminster accountability question as much as a Holyrood one 2/ 🏗️ THE LAND FLIPPERS (1): ILI GROUP

ILI Group (SC564296) is run by one man; Mark Wilson, an accountant from Hamilton. He doesn't build data centres. He secures land, gets grid connections, gets planning permission, then sells the package to an anonymous buyer.

The proposed Cato facility near Auchtertool, Fife: 600MW. The village has 215 homes. The world's largest data centre in Nevada is 650MW.

No end user has been named. The community has no idea who will own this.

@HeatherMc1960 @Allanpetrie91 @LiberateScot The Scottish Parliament voted on 11 March 2026 (110-7, with 1 abstention) to approve a Scottish Statutory Instrument adding “sex” (explicitly defined as biological sex at birth) as a protected characteristic under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. @HeatherMc1960 @Allanpetrie91 @LiberateScot This reverses the 2021 decision to exclude sex (the only Equality Act protected characteristic left out originally) and comes via secondary legislation after the government dropped plans for a standalone Misogyny Bill. It takes effect in April 2027