Publication - FOI/EIR release

Mowi Broodstock Programme and Salmon Egg Imports: EIR release

Published: 15 May 2024
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Marine and fisheries, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202400391984
Date received: 8 January 2024
Date responded: 1 February 2024

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

Information requested

1. “Please provide information on salmon egg (ova) imports since 1 January 2021.

2. Please provide any information which includes details of Mowi's broodstock programme - including letters, emails, certificates, photos, data and other information since 1 January 2021.”

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.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the publicly available register of authorised aquaculture production businesses, which will specify developmental stages of aquaculture animals held, including hatchery and broodstock. The register can be found at:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/registers-of-authorised-aquaculture-production-businesses-andauthorised-processing-establishments/. We may also hold information which is relevant to your request which has been collected through the aquatic animal health surveillance programme conducted by the Marine Directorate's Fish Health Inspectorate. This information is made publicly available through a proactive publication plan and can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/publication-of-fishhealth-inspectorate-information/.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

With regards to the information we hold in relation to part two of your request regarding Mowi’s broodstock programme, we are supplying all information we hold relating to farm sites Mowi may intend to use for the holding of broodstock. With respect to the planning application documentation, all of this was previously available on the Highland Council Planning website. Once a planning decision is made, publicly available information may become limited. Planning applications to the Highland Council can be found here: https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/ and the application from which we have provided information is 22/06182/FUL. However, since the Marine Directorate still holds this information, as part of our response, we are releasing information from this planning application, which is relevant to your request.

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 part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. We do not hold any information specifically pertaining to Mowi’s breeding programme or their intentions for the genetics of the Mowi broodstock or production.

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.