Electrofishing trials official scales and approved diver list enquiries: EIR release

Information requested

• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018, how many vessels have had the catch weighed on their return to port using official Marine Scotland calibrated Scales ?
• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018 how many divers are on the approved Marine Scotland diver list?

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

• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018, 19 authorised vessels have had their catches weighed on Marine Scotland scales. In total, 101 catches were weighed by Marine Scotland fishery officers. It is also important to note that Marine Scotland do not calibrate scales, this service is provided by an external company.
• From the date of this information request, a total of 148 divers were authorised by Marine Scotland to participate in the electrofishing for the razor clams scientific trial from 1 February 2022 - 31 January 2023.

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 Articles 5 (1) of the General Data protection Regulation and in section 34 (1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This applies to the diver information held since the start of the trial in 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.