Number of Scottish seed potato growers subject to post burndown tuber testing: EIR release

Information requested

How many Scottish seed potato growers have been subjected to SASA -tuber testing - during the months of August 2019 and also September 2019.

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.

The answer to your question is: Fifteen Scottish seed potato growers were subject to post burndown tuber testing for virus in the months of August and September 2019.

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