Correspondence with SEPA regarding Depositional Zone Regulation and fish farming: EIR release

Information requested

Correspondence etc between SEPA and SG policy functions & departments in respect to the Depositional Zone Regulation from June 2016 to March 2017. And in respect to the completion and introduction of SEPAs new regulatory framework for fish farming from August 2018 to end of June 2019.

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.

Response to your request

I attach the information you requested at Annex A. 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 exceptions under regulation 6(1) (b) (Information already publicly available); and regulation 11(2) (Personal information) apply.

Some of the information you have requested is already publicly available, as follows:

• SEPA information regarding the proposed Depositional Zone Regulation: Depositional Zone Regulation - A new regulatory method for marine cage fish farms - Scottish Environment Protection Agency - Citizen Space (sepa.org.uk)
• SEPA information regarding the current Regulatory Framework which superseded the proposed Depositional Zone Regulation: Regulatory framework | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• Protection of the Marine Environment, Discharges from Marine Pen Fish Farms, a Strengthened Regulatory Framework: finfish-aquaculture-annex-2019_31052019.pdf (sepa.org.uk)

Under the terms of the exception at 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 you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the links to websites listed above, please contact me and I will send you a paper copy.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception, as the information is already publicly available.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) 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.

FOI - 202100258011 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

31 page PDF

File size

2.1 MB