Applications for licences to shoot seals on salmon farms:EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01566
Date received: 4 June 2018
Date responded: 27 July 2018

Information requested

Copies of all applications for licences to shoot seals on salmon farms since 1 February 2016. Please also provide copies of all reports submitted by marksmen since 1 February 2016.

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.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

With regard to the requested information, the following link will give you access to view and download the files:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y781ucadj54weyj/AADdWfrT0bIA1o4t7Cx7Yqpna?dl=0

The link goes to the Scottish Government Dropbox area, a secure place to share large and/or numerous files. Due to the high volume of information, and as part of the continuous improvement of our service, we are providing you with the information in one place and at one time (as opposed to many emails). Please download the information from Dropbox.

To access the documents via Dropbox use the above link taking the following steps:

1. Click the Download button at the top right, then Direct download to save all the documents to your PC, if you wish.

2. Alternatively, click a document to view it in your browser and then click the Download button at the top right to save that document to your PC.

3. If you have a Dropbox account you can save the files to your Dropbox.

4. There is a toolbar at the bottom of the screen with options to show a sidebar, Zoom, Page up/down, use Fullscreen or Print.

Some of the information you have requested was made available in the responses provided to your previous requests: FoI/18/00982 (dated 16th March 2018, information for the period 2015 and 2016); FoI/18/00983 (dated 19th March 2018, information for the period 1st January 2017 to the 19th March 2018); FoI/18/01532, (dated 26th May 2018, information for the period following the 19th March to the 26th May). There is no additional information from the 26th May to the 4th June 2018. 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.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why this exception applies are explained below.

Reasons for not providing information

Exceptions that apply.

An exception under regulation 11(2) (personal information of a third party) of the EIRs apply to some of the information you have requested.

Regulation 11(2) – personal information of a third party.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EISRs (personal information of a third party) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

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