Licences of Fish Farm sites within specified geographical area: EIR release

Information requested

Information relating to licences of fish farm sites within a specified geographical area.

A list of all licensed fish farms within the following coordinates: 5.54’W to 6.23’W and 56.45’N to 56.71’N that were operational at any point between 2011 and 2024.

Please include site name, company/operator, location, species farmed, and dates of operation, any periods during which the site was inactive or fallow for each site.

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.

Response to your request

I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested in the attached excel spreadsheet. This includes details of site and business names and numbers, date of initial registration, site locational information, water type, site status and dates of any site status changes. The spreadsheet contains details of the species the site is currently authorised to farm / stock (this may not necessarily reflect actual stocking of such species), as well as a column of any additional information where relevant.

The worksheet relating to “Cases” contains the site number, case number and the date of inspections made in accordance with the aquatic animal health surveillance programme undertaken by the Scottish Government’s Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI). Where necessary, the case number can be used to search the published information – further details provided below. Relevant information has been extracted and provided from cases which were undertaken prior to publication.

Please also note the following:

We have interpreted your request to relate to commercial fish farms and therefore have not considered any commercial shellfish farms or any research facilities involving farmed fish or shellfish, where such facilities exist within the geographical area of your request.

The worksheet entitled “site data” contains a column entitled “additional information where available” and within this section information on species normally held on site is provided. This information was not routinely collected prior to 2021, and no information is available for sites which were inactivated/deregistered prior to 2021. Historical FHI cases will give details of the species held on site of that inspection.

We do not hold comprehensive information concerning site fallowing. Where detail is held, this relates to case information collected through FHI inspections. Additional information relating to this area may be available through SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency Home | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scotland’s Aquaculture Website Scotland's Aquaculture | Home.

Please refer to published case information (detailed below) for any relevant information relating to your request, as directed through the information provided. Where cases were conducted before proactive publication was introduced, we have extracted relevant information and included it within the excel spreadsheet provided.

Publicly available information

Some information relating to your request is available from the Scottish Government website Publication of Fish Health Inspectorate information - gov.scot. In particular, details relating to the Fish Health Inspectorate’s aquatic animal health surveillance programme which is subject to a proactive publication plan. Records dating back to the beginning of 2013 have been published and we have provided you with a list of sites and specific case numbers which can be used to help search for relevant information within these published documents. 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.

An exception applies

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 aspects of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

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. The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested because we do not hold comprehensive records relating to fallowing, or historical information (prior to 2021) concerning the species usually held on site. We have provided other information we hold relating to fallowing and species stocked/farmed with respect to the specific sites relating to your request.

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 fallowing and species farmed, 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500459161- information released - Annex

File type

Excel document

File size

27.0 kB