Owners and managers of fisheries: FOI release

Information requested

Who owns / manages the body of water [connected to the fishery]; and
Their contact email / phone or postal address

Response

Please find enclosed a copy of the information that we are able to supply in response to your request.
We have been able to provide you with generic contact details (emails and/or postal addresses) where these do not identify any specific individual. Most of the contact details we hold constitute personal information and as a result an exemption at 38(1)(b) (personal data) of FOISA applies to much of the information that you have requested. The reason why this exemption applies is set out in the Annex of this letter. For your information we have provided contact details for approximately 170 fisheries from a total of 909 which are registered with us.

You may be aware that much of the information you have requested is likely to be available online. In particular, internet searching using specific fishery names (provided to you through previous communications) will direct you to websites with contact information, where these exist.
Supplementary to this, the following organisations and websites may be able to provide you with further contact information:
Scottish Anglers National Association - http://www.sana.org.uk/
Association of Scottish Stillwater Fisheries - http://www.assf.net/
Fish pal - https://www.fishpal.com/

In addition, Bruce Sandison’s book – Rivers and Lochs of Scotland: The Angler’s Complete Guide, may contain some useful information. The book was last updated in 2013 so is out of date but this may still be a useful resource.
Please be aware that the information we hold on specific fishery websites may not be up to date. In addition, as the requirement under The Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009 is to register put and take fisheries, the information provided to you may include private fisheries and syndicates, both of which may not be accessible to the general public for angling. I mention this, simply because I understand that your intention is to produce tourist information for the visiting angler on places to fish and it may not be appropriate to advertise private fisheries in this regard. Marine Scotland’s Fish Health Inspectorate does not hold data (and has no legal requirement to do so) to determine which of the registered fisheries are accessible to the general public.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT SUPPLYING INFORMATION
Exceptions apply
An exemption under 38(1)(b) (personal data) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because it is personal information relating to 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.

FOI-202000040034 Information released

File type

Excel document

File size

21.5 kB