Publication - FOI/EIR release

Annual Fisheries Committee Reports: EIR release

Published: 10 April 2024
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Marine and fisheries, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202300380867
Date received: 16 October 2023
Date responded: 8 November 2023

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004

Information requested

1) The release of the annual Fisheries Committee Reports (set up as part of the Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act 1943) from 1943 to present.

2) The release of the following report which used to be available publicly but is no longer available: Armstrong, J.D., Armstrong, R.M., Graham, J.L., Middlemas, S.J., Ribbens, J.C.H., Rycroft, P. and Stewart, D.C. 2012. Movements of Returning Atlantic Salmon Through Tongland Fish Pass. Marine Scotland Science Report 05/12

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 enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

The Armstrong et. al. 2012 paper (request 2) is attached to this response as file number 5.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because the Scottish Government is no longer responsible for the Fisheries Committee. We believe that the responsibility was passed to SEPA in the early 2000s. The annual reports (request 1) were publicly available on the Scottish Government website, but as responsibility was transferred, the webpages were taken down at some point. Any further copies of the reports have been routinely destroyed, in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request. However, we have managed to locate 4 of the annual reports in our archive and these are attached as file numbers 1 to 4.

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. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the reports of the Fisheries Committee clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, you may wish to contact SEPA at foi@sepa.org.uk who may be able to help you.

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.