Fish movement: site of Maclean’s Nose to BDNC: EIR release

Information requested

Please note that this is an updated version of the final response which was issued on 20 May 2024. The update has been made due to the discovery of relevant information after the issuing the original response.

Your request

You asked for specific information relating to two fish farm sites operated by Mowi Scotland Ltd – MacLean’s Nose, FS0599, and Bagh Dail Nan Cean, FS0805, (BDNC). Further details of your request are referred to below, under the ‘Response to your request’ section, and are also provided in full within the Annex to this response.

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

In relation to part 1 of your request, concerning permissions relating to the reduced fallow period at BDNC, I can advise you that in this individual case there was no requirement to seek permission from the Scottish Government for this activity.

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 specific areas of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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:

• We do not hold copies of environmental management plans or biosecurity measures plans relating to ether site. Whilst these documents can be inspected as part of the Fish Health Inspectorate’s aquatic animal disease surveillance activity, we do not retain copies of the same as we have no business need to do so.
• With respect to part 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D and 4E of your request the regulatory responsibility for The Water Environment (controlled activities) Regulation 2011 (CAR) sits with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Subsequently, the Scottish Government do not hold any of the documents or information associated with these parts of your request. SEPA can be contacted via their website (https://www.sepa.org.uk/) and may be able to provide information to you in relation to this part of your request.

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 environmental management plans, biosecurity measures plans, the associated risk assessment referred to above, and information relating to CAR with respect to this individual case, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

We do hold a copy of the risk assessment undertaken associated with the movement of fish from MacLean’s Nose to BDNC. A redacted copy of this document is provided to you with this response.

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 202400411054 - Information Released - Annex

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117.3 kB

FOI 202400411054 - Information Released - Risk assessment

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424.9 kB