Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands briefing notes on salmon farming debate: EIR release

Information requested

The 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 Debate: Salmon Farming in Scotland on Thursday 20 March 2025.

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.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the website of the Scottish Parliament, specifically: 1) Salmon farming in Scotland: Scottish Government’s response to the report (Salmon farming in Scotland Scottish Government response | Scottish Parliament Website) and 2) Letter from Salmon Scotland (Salmon farming 3 February 2025 | Scottish Parliament Website). 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 website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exceptions under regulations 10(4) d) (Unfinished or incomplete information), 10(4)(e) (Internal communications) and 11(2) (Personal information of a third party) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why those exceptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exception applies

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) (unfinished or incomplete information) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested because three of the internal, draft (incomplete) documents within the scope of your request have been withheld in full. The reason for this is, that at the time of your request, the final versions of all these documents were all completed. Therefore, we have instead released copies of these – the final briefing items in all cases where a draft internal document has been withheld.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and this has been met by release of the final versions of the documents to you. However, for the draft versions, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that incomplete information is not disclosed when it might misinform the public or give a misleading impression of the Government’s view or position on the matter to which the information relates and which was incomplete.

An exception applies

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) (internal communications) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because releasing this information is likely to substantially inhibit the future provision of free and frank advice to Ministers.

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. We recognise that there is some public interest in releasing all of the information in scope. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s policy on Aquaculture. Disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the policy and decision-making process, which would not be in the public interest.

An exception applies

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information of a third party) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500458424 - Information released - Annex A

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