Correspondence regarding Clyde fishing ground closure between 1st October 2021 and 18th January 2022: EIR release

Information requested

All correspondence between Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon MSP, Minister Mairi McAllan MSP, Minister Lorna Slater MSP and civil servants regarding the Clyde fishing ground closure between 1 October 2021 and 18 January 2022 including, emails, Whatsapp messages and meeting minutes.

Response

I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.

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 attach a copy of some of the information you requested.

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. You will note that this information has been redacted throughout the disclosed documents.

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 10(4)(d) (Material in the course of completion) and 10(4)(e) (internal communications) of the EIRs applies to that information.

These exceptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding these exceptions. We recognise that there is some public interest in release on the basis of interest in an open and transparent government and increased scrutiny of government decision-making on a policy that has now been publically announced. However, in the case of these documents, this is outweighed by the public interest in not releasing documents which contain elements relevant to ongoing internal policy decision making or where there is reference to Scottish Government Legal Department advice, where there remains strong public interest in maintaining the right to confidentiality of communications between legal advisers and clients, to ensure that Ministers and officials are able to receive legal advice in confidence, like any other public or private organisation. Where draft documents were withheld, these items will be published online in due course.

Some of the information included as attachments in the documents being released are already publically available online:

• (The Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2021 (legislation.gov.uk))
• (Clyde cod spawning closure 2022-2023: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot))

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 website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 - 202200273687 - Information Released - Annex

File type

61 page PDF

File size

1.5 MB