Marine Protection vessel control gate inspections: EIR release

Information requested

How many vessels visited the Hirta’s Control Gate given the fact there were in excess of fifty pelagic vessels fishing the area east of Shetland at the time?

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.

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 have taken the period as the week prior to and including the date of your first email on this subject, the dates are therefore 23 September to 30 September 2023 inclusive. During this period the Marine Protection Vessel Hirta undertook 3 control gate inspections.

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.