Salmon farming briefing notes provided to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request 202400440742

Full briefing notes provided to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands in preparation for her appearance at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee follow-up inquiry into salmon farming on Wednesday 13 November 2024.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) for:

“Full briefing notes provided to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands in preparation for her appearance at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee follow-up inquiry into salmon farming on Wednesday 13 November 2024”.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted. Some time has passed since your original request and I have decided that any sensitivities around the withheld information no longer apply. The information has since been made publicly available and therefore the exception under regulation 10(5)(f) can no longer be applied.

The information previously withheld from item 2, page 3 is:

“On 16 February 2023 Migdale Transport Ltd. notifies Scottish Government Fish Health Inspectorate that an escape of 80,000 fish occurred after a door on a wellboat anchored at Garvie Bay was left unsecured due to human error.”

There is the following clarification required regarding the information released above:

• The fish originated from Loch Shin and were loaded at Lochinver for transport to Orkney. As the fish escaped during transit, the exact location(s) of the escape(s) along the route cannot be determined.
• The transporter involved in the escape incident has taken remedial action to avoid similar events in future.

Additional information provided outwith the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) I have provided information below to other recent information requests that relate to the yours:

EIR reference 202400441299: Escape of 80,000 salmon in February 2023: EIR release - gov.scot
EIR reference 202400445491: Atlantic salmon escape data: EIR release - gov.scot
EIR reference 202500446495: Farmed salmon escapes correspondence: EIR release - gov.scot

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.