Fines, prosecutions and other offences in relation to seals and salmon farms since 1 January 2017: EIR release

Information requested

Please provide information on any fines, prosecutions and other offences in relation to seals and salmon farms since 1 January 2017.

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.

 

The answer to your question is that, in two separate cases, we have issued an advisory letter for breach of a seal licence.  We have also issued a fixed penalty notice of £2000 (which was paid) for breach of a seal licence.

 

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