Publication - FOI/EIR release

Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd information: EIR release

Published: 22 July 2025
Directorate: Marine Directorate
Topic: Marine and fisheries, Public sector
FOI reference: EIR/202500462487
Date received: 21 April 2025
Date responded: 19 May 2025

Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Information requested

1) Please supply the details (dates / times / location / purpose / names and roles of those in attendance) of all meetings (formal and/or informal) between staff and representatives of the Scottish Government and representatives of Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd in the last three years. Please include copies of any agendas, minutes or other record (in any digital or print form) of the meetings. I define ‘meetings’ as including in-person, via telecommunication / telephone (mobile or landline), video or audio conferencing, social media or otherwise on-line through digital video or audio technology.

2) Please supply copies of all communication between staff and representatives of the Scottish Government and representatives of Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd in the last three years. Communication includes printed and digital correspondence in letter, email, text or message form, audio or visual/video recording, transcript of a meeting or discussion in-person, through telecommunication, social media or video message / meeting.

3) Please supply details of any gift, present or donation (including meals and/or drinks) made by Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd or its representatives to representatives / staff of the Scottish Government in the last three years.

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.

Answer to Question No 1:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have 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 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 the information you have requested because there have been no meetings between the Scottish Government and Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd.

While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information on the details (dates / times / location / purpose / names and roles of those in attendance) of any meetings (formal and/or informal) between staff and representatives of the Scottish Government and representatives of Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd in the last three years, clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Answer to Question No 2:

I am providing a copy of most of the information you requested. There are 66 PDF documents in scope of this part of the request. Items are numbered 1 to 57 and 60 to 68. Items 58 and 59 are not provided as they are out of scope of this request.

Exceptions have been applied to some of the information released under Question No 2:

Regulation 10(5)(e) – substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial information) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies because disclosure of this information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information provided by Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd. and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. Disclosing this information would be likely to disadvantage Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd in future similar tendering exercises, which would substantially prejudice Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd.'s ability to secure competitive tenders and deliver value for money and so could significantly harm their commercial business.

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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which enter into Scottish Government contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

Regulation 11(2) – applicant has asked for personal data of a third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) 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.

Answer to Question No 3:

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 the information you have requested because there were no gifts, presents or donations (including meals and/or drinks) made by Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd or its representatives to representatives / staff of the Scottish Government in the last three years.

While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information regarding any gifts, presents or donations (including meals and/or drinks) made by Scottish Quality Salmon Ltd or its representatives to representatives / staff of the Scottish Government in the last three years, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to advise you that we publish information about Ministerial engagements, overseas travel, car journeys, domestic travel and gifts received here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - 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.