Reports of illegal fishing and aquaculture in Shetland: EIR release

Information requested

Compile and return to me records of all reports or complaints of illegal or suspicious fishing or aquaculture in the Shetland Islands received by the Marine Directorate between 1st January 2013 and the date at which you process this request. For each report or complaint, please include the date, location, the type of illegal or suspicious activity reported, and the outcome of any investigation following the report/complaint. I am happy to accept redactions of individuals and vessel details within the list.

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. Attached is a summary of all reports or complaints of alleged illegal or suspicious fishing or aquaculture in the Shetland Islands between 1st January 2021 and 30th November 2024. The data relates to reports which detail activity within the Shetland Islands, as well as the waters surrounding them out to around the 12 mile limit. Please note that these are reports of suspected illegal or suspicious activity which are received from a range of sources and vary in accuracy. Therefore, they are not proof that an offence has been committed.

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. 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 the Marine Directorate observes the data protection principles set out within the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, particularly those regarding data quality and security in the handling of intelligence material, and routinely reviews and disposes of records in accordance with these principles. Therefore we do not hold any records of reports or complaints of illegal or suspicious fishing or aquaculture prior to 2021.

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 reports or complaints of alleged illegal or suspicious fishing or aquaculture in the Shetland slands prior to 2021, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400442034 - Information Released - Annex

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