Datasets regarding commercial fisheries surveillance sightings: EIR Release

Information requested

Access to any datasets regarding commercial fisheries surveillance sightings. I have contacted the MMO who were able to provide surveillance information. These datasets include information on vessel nationality and gear type between 2018-2022 for the English ICES rectangles.

We can comply with any confidential requirements.

Please see below the ICES rectangles that we require the data for:

41E6, 41E7, 41E8, 41E9, 41F0, 42E8, 42E9, 42F0, 43E7, 43E8, 43E9, 44E8

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Response

I am releasing some of the information you requested, relating to UK fishing vessels as held by the Scottish Government.

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 an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

An exception applies

Regulation 11(2) – To the extent that environmental information requested includes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject and in relation to which either the first or second condition set out in paragraphs (3) and (4) is satisfied, a Scottish public authority shall not make the personal data available.

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

To comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, location data is subject to statistical disclosure controls. Values are redacted where there are fewer than five fishing vessels present.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.

If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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.