Fish health inspections and welfare breaches: EIR release

Information requested

1. Please could you confirm how many statutory fish health inspections were completed by FHI on fish farms in Scotland in the period between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023?

2. How many of the fish health inspections conducted by FHI inspectors in the period 1 January 2023 - 31 December 2023 identified possible fish welfare issues?

3. How many cases did you refer to the APHA for further investigation of possible welfare breaches under section 19 and section 24 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006?

4. Please could you disclose the applicable internal policy according to which cases are referred to the APHA for further investigation of welfare issues?

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.

As a background, the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) implement a statutory surveillance programme relating to aquatic animal disease throughout Scotland. Under the current regulatory remit, the FHI have no statutory responsibility with respect to welfare within farmed animals. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are responsible for investigating potential breaches in welfare law.

Where our inspection activities raise welfare concerns then we will liaise directly with APHA on these matters and will refer individual cases to APHA where necessary. However, as the FHI have no statutory remit under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, any referrals would not have referenced the Act.

We are open and transparent with respect to the inspection activity which we undertake. This includes publishing details of actions we undertake during an inspection as well as outcomes, findings and results. Where we make recommendations in line with our own statutory responsibilities then this information will be reflected in the fish health report issued to the business responsible for operating any individual site. These reports are proactively published as part of the FHI publication plan once the individual case is closed. The case information can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/publication-of-fish-health-inspectorate-information/

The answers to your questions are:

1. 254 visits to finfish farms were conducted by the FHI between 01 January 2023 – 31 December 2023.

2. Seven of these cases has observations of potential welfare concerns.

3. I have interpreted this question as being in relation to the previous two questions and so have defined “cases” as being related to the inspections conducted on finfish farms by the FHI between 01 January 2023 – 31 December 2023. All seven cases have been referred to the APHA due to observations of potential welfare concerns. To note, few cases are referred to the APHA from the FHI, as explained above, the welfare of farmed finfish is outside of the statutory remit of the FHI. However, in the rare occurrence that significant concerns are observed by the FHI, then these are referred to the APHA, but as the FHI do not operate under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, they would not have been categorised as falling under any specific sections of the Act.

4. While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore, we are refusing this part of 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 statutory role of the FHI does not include the welfare of farmed finfish, therefore, there is no formal written policy on how the FHI respond to potential welfare concerns.

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 welfare in farmed finfish, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, should a FHI inspector observe potential significant issues with farmed finfish welfare then the case inspector would discuss any concerns with senior FHI technical management. The information would be reviewed, along with relevant records, to determine whether the issue is referred to the APHA.

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.