Financial incentives, support given to the salmon industry, fish farming: EIR release

Information requested

How much does the Scottish Government give to the salmon industry (aquaculture / fish farming) in Scotland, in.

• subsidies
• grants
• other financial incentives, support, tax relief, benefits or similar frameworks? Please could you provide the sums for each year, from 2021 - 2023 (or the most recent 3 years available)?

How many meetings has the Scottish Government (MSPs and/or any staff members, civil servants etc.) had with with representatives from the salmon industry?

Please include meetings, events, committees and please classify the type of meeting/s. Please could you provide the details for each year, from 2021 - 2023 (or the most recent 3 years available)?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

In preparing our response we have provided relevant information, where applicable, covering the period 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2023.

In respect to the first part of your request all of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website:

• Financial support paid to salmon farming industry: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), which covers the period 1 January 2021 – 13 March 2023.
• Marine Fund Scotland: grants awarded - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), which covers the period 13 March 2023 – 31 December 2023.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

In respect to the second part of your request, I have classified the type of meetings as 1) Scottish Government officials-stakeholder meetings; and 2) Ministerial-stakeholder meetings:

Type 1. Scottish Government Officials-stakeholder meetings: Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website at: Aquaculture: Consenting Task Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Farmed fish health: Scotland’s Farmed Fish Health Framework - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Excluding the published meetings of the Consenting Task Group and Farmed Fish Health Framework linked above 31 officials-stakeholder meetings with the salmon farming industry were conducted in 2021, 47 officials-stakeholder meetings with the salmon farming industry were conducted in 2022, and 47 officials-stakeholder meetings with the salmon farming industry were conducted in 2023. In addition, 14 officials-stakeholder meetings took place as a monthly touchpoint between June 2022 and December 2023, and 45 officials-stakeholder meetings took place bi-weekly as part of the Farmed Fish Health Framework between January 2021 and December 2023.

Furthermore, Marine Directorate Science, Evidence, Data and Digital conducted 63 officialsstakeholder meetings between October 2020 and December 2022 to produce the Salmon Parasite Interactions In Linnhe, Lorn, and Shuna (SPILLS) project report; and 5 officials-stakeholder meetings prior to December 31 2023 to produce the WeeHoloCam sea lice project.

Type 2. Ministerial-stakeholder meetings: Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website at: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Excluding the published Ministerial engagements linked above, 1 Ministerial-stakeholder meeting with the salmon farming industry was conducted between 1 November 2023 and 31 December 2023.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Clarifications on the information released under your request

Your request for information on “meetings” between the Scottish Government (including MSPs and/or any staff members) and the salmon farming industry is broad, and so I am providing clarification on the number of meetings released to you in response to your request.

Firstly, specific areas of the Scottish Government conduct regular operational meetings with representatives of the salmon farming industry. The Inspectors of the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI), for example, are appointed by the Scottish Ministers to act under the aquaculture and aquatic animal health regulations. This involves regularly undertaking statutory inspection and sampling programmes on fish farm sites, duties which include meeting salmon farming industry workers.

The FHI proactively publishes the information it collects, including records of inspections at farm sites and how they are conducted, online: Publication of Fish Health Inspectorate information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). It is for this reason I have not provided information on the number of meetings that are carried out by the Scottish Government in the course of fulfilling its statutory obligations.

For the purposes of your request, I am therefore only providing information on the number of nonoperational meetings between the Scottish Government and representatives of the salmon farming industry.

Information on the number of meetings provided in this response is reflective of the development of Scottish Government policy in relation to Scotland’s aquaculture industry during the period 2021 – 2023, including ongoing work to strengthen controls on sea lice and farmed fish escapes, work to improve the health and welfare of farmed fish, streamline the aquaculture consenting process, deliver a Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture, and publication of the Seafood Strategy and wider policy work such as the development of a new National Marine Plan, and the Scottish Wild Salmon Strategy, among other objectives. Scottish Ministers and officials meet and hear from a range of organisations with a diverse range of views in the course of their duties. This includes those representing industrysectors which stand to be impacted by regulation, as well as those representing community, environmental and other interests.

Finally, not every meeting is formally recorded, and so it may be the case that meetings have taken place between the Scottish Government and the salmonfarming industry that we have no record of, and so have not included in the numbers provided above.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.