Statistics and questions regarding aquaculture policy: EIR release

Information requested

1 Detailed figures showing the calculations behind yesterday’s figure of £1.3 billion, broken down by sector, viz, salmon aquaculture, other aquaculture (e.g. mussels, oysters), bottom dredged, other trawled, creel caught and wild caught.

2 Please differentiate between direct employment and indirect and the extent to which “multipliers” have been brought in to include local unrelated jobs in particular communities.

3 Please explain what is meant by the word “contribution” in this context. A detailed breakdown by income tax and NI, corporation tax and VAT would be welcome.

4 The claim that doubling the targets by 2030 is a Scottish Government ambition raises a further issue. In the past this has been claimed as an industry objective, despite some industry personnel including Ben Hadfield of MOWI stating that it came from Scottish Government. This is an important distinction, as a government policy of this sort, with obvious implications for the environment, should surely have necessitated an environmental impact assessment. Can you please provide a copy of this, or explain the basis on which Scottish Government decided it was not required?

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.

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 your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Some of the information you have requested is already publicly available. 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 websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2019:
Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Scotland’s Marine Economic Statistics 2019 publication provides a breakdown by industry and year. Table 25 provides a breakdown of Aquaculture Gross Value Added (GVA) and employment into Finfish and Shellfish for years 2010-2019. Table 20 provides a GVA breakdown for aquaculture, fishing and processing as well as other marine industries by year. Table 22 provides an employment headcount breakdown for aquaculture, fishing and processing as well as other marine industries by year. The details about how this information was calculated is covered within the publication in the above link.

Aquaculture sector - wider economic impacts estimates:
Aquaculture sector - wider economic impacts: estimates - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Aquaculture Growth to 2030 is an industry-led plan that was published in 2016:
Aquaculture_Growth_2030.pdf
 

ANNEX A

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

The Scottish Government does not hold the information

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.

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 aquaculture, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.