Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a moratorium to prohibit planning permission from being granted for any hyperscale data centres, until it has carried out a thorough assessment of their impacts on Scotland's communities, greenhouse gas emissions, land and water resources and electricity grid; until regulations are modified to require all hyperscale AI data centres to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment; and until the Scottish Government puts in place guidance on hyperscale AI data centres and ‘green data centres’.
Petitioner: Katherine Jones on behalf of Action to Protect Rural Scotland
Status: Under consideration
Date published: 21 July 2026
Click here to read and sign the full petition
SPICe Briefing (155KB, pdf) posted 16 September 2026
8 October 2026: The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government to seek further information, and to the Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee to ask if the issues raised in the petition will form part of its work programme.
Meeting of the Public Petitions Committee, 8 October 2026
PE2233/A: Scottish Government written submission, 1 September 2026 (93KB, pdf) posted 07 September 2026
PE2233/B: Petitioner written submission, 29 September 2026 (92KB, pdf) posted 30 September 2026