Enforcement of farmed animal welfare legislation: EIR release

Information requested

Various information on the enforcement of farmed animal welfare legislation during the period 1 January 2024 - 31 December 2024.

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 some of the information you requested.

The answer to your questions 1(a) and (b) is that the Scottish Government does not enforce farmed animal welfare legislation. The reason why is that farmed animal welfare legislation in Scotland is enforced by the Animal and Plant Health Agency and Scottish Local Authorities.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in your other questions. 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, as noted above, the Scottish Government is not responsible for enforcement of farmed animal welfare legislation.

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 enforcement of farmed animal welfare legislation, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

However, you may wish to contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency or any of the individual Scottish Local Authorities who may be able to help you.

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.