Scottish Salmon Industry - EIR release

Information requested

How much public money is (was) given to the Scottish Salmon Industry, including grants, subsidies and any other benefits for the years 2017-2020 inclusive?

Your request was further clarified by you on 25 March, asking for an annual figure for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Either the calendar year or the financial year.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the 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 Scottish Government does not hold the information you request in the format you request (annual totals of all funding to this sector), as this would include not just support from the Scottish Government, but also from other sources such as agencies and local authorities, which we do not hold. However, I am able to supply you with the following:

Scottish Government
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)
Up to the end of 2020, the Scottish Government administered EMFF funds for aquaculture businesses, published at https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/grantssubsidies/awards/EMFFTransparency . Grants less than £25k are only online for a limited time after announcement. An exception under regulation 6(1) (b) of the EIRs (information already publicly available) applies to this information, as detailed in Annex A below.

Other Agencies
Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB)
SNIB grant awards to the industry in 2017 and 2018 were published in the Scottish Government FOI release https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00442/. An exception under regulation 6(1) (b) of the EIRs (information already publicly available) applies to this information, as detailed in annex A.
Information on SNIB grants awarded in 2019 and 2020 can be obtained by writing directly to SNIB at enquiries@thebank.scot. An exception under regulation 10(4) (a) of the EIRs (information not held), applies to this information, as detailed in Annex A.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE)
I attach an email from Highlands and Islands Enterprise which we hold at Annex B. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (Personal data of a third party) applies to this document, as detailed in Annex A. Further information on HIE funding can be obtained by writing directly to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, An Lochran, 10 Inverness Campus, Inverness, IV2 5NA, Scotland, tel: 01463 245 245, enquiries@hient.co.uk.   An exception under regulation 10(4) (a) of the EIRs (information not held), applies to this information, as detailed in Annex A.

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.

FoI - 202100184149 - Information released

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