Correspondence with Kverva and SalMar: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request - 202500461058

“All email correspondence, including attachments, exchanged from any email address under your domain ("@gov.scot") with any under the domains for SalMar ("@salmar.no"), or Kverva ("@kverva.no"), from 1 January 2024 through to the date at which you process this request.”

Response

Further to my letter of 21 May 2025, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) for:

• Any and all email correspondence, including attachments, exchanged from any email address under your domain ("@gov.scot") with any under the domains for SalMar ("@salmar.no"), or Kverva ("@kverva.no"), from 1 January 2024 through to the date at which you process this request.
• Please also include correspondence, and attachments, where either addresses under SalMar or Kverva's domains are copied.
• Please include all correspondence: as well as those emails detailing meetings, or actions also any administrative, scheduling or other shorter emails exchanged.
• You may notice some overlap with previous requests with reference 202500456187 and 202500460409. Both of those request concerns a different domain "@salmarakenocean.no", though if there is any overlap please not not exclude any correspondence from your response to this request.

The original EIR case reference number was 202500461058.

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

1. I first wanted to clarify that I found that there was no information accidentally omitted from our original response. I can confirm that there were a further two documents found to be in scope of your request and not released, but I find these were withheld, in their entirety, under an exception of the EIRs.

The items withheld were two versions (versions 1 & 2) of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets titled “Estimated Consenting Timelines for Salmon Farm Development (3-12NM)”. These items were prepared as attachments to item 3 that was originally released to you on 1 May 2025. It was explained in your original response letter (also dated 1 May 2025) that some information had not been provided because exceptions under regulations 10(5)(e) of the EIRs (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) and 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) of the EIRs applies to that information. I can confirm that it was exclusively an exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs that was applied to both documents, in their entirety, in our original response.

2. During my review I found that only part of the information contained within the spreadsheets had been directly supplied to us by the third party in question (Salmar Ocean). The majority of the information contained within the spreadsheets was prepared internally and so I do not agree that the entire documents should have been withheld. Therefore, I am now releasing most of the information contained within those two documents to you. Please find enclosed redacted PDF copies of both documents – items 4 and 5.

As per item 3, released to you under our original response, I can confirm that the timetables shown in the PDF documents now released to you, were estimates only, provided as a guide to Salmar Ocean.

3. During my review I also considered that in order for the exception at 10(5)(e) of the EIRs to apply, the information in question must be confidential under law. I did not find sufficient evidence to agree that the information provided by Salmar Ocean was confidential under law. Therefore, I do not uphold the original decision to apply that exception. However, after further third party consultation with Salmar Ocean, I find that a different exception of the EIRs applies to the parts of items 4 & 5 still withheld under my review.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(f) of the EIRs (substantial prejudice to interests of person who provided the information) applies to some of the information you have requested.

This exception applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the interests of Salmar Ocean who provided that information to the Scottish Government. They:

• were not under any legal obligation to give us that information;
• did not supply it in circumstances in which it could, apart from the EIRs, be made available; and
• have not consented to disclosure.

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. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the interests of anyone, such as Salmar Ocean, who provides the Scottish Government with information on a confidential basis. This ensures a fair system for all.

Disclosing such information against the express wishes of the stakeholder is likely to undermine their trust in the Government and make them reluctant in future to share information with us on licensing and regulatory matters. This would significantly impair the Scottish Government’s ability to develop policies and make decisions on the basis of fully informed advice and evidence. This would not be in the public interest.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) I would like to advise you that the information released to you in the documents (Estimated Consenting Timelines for Salmon Farm Development (3-12NM)) has now been superseded, as Consenting Timelines for Salmon Farm Development (3-12NM) is an area of active policy development. Work is underway to clarify the consenting process for aquaculture development between 3-12 NM, as committed to in the Programme for Government 2025-2026.

You may be interested to know that The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee took evidence on the Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2025 (SSI 2025/draft), which has been laid in parliament, from Ivan McKee, Minister for Public Finance and Joseph Triscott, Delivery Lead for Aquaculture Consenting Policy, Scottish Government, on 28 May 2025. Further details can be found at the following link: Rural Affairs and Islands Committee 18th Meeting, 2025 | Scottish Parliament Website.

Town and Country Planning (Marine Fish Farming) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2025 was approved by parliament on 11 June 2025 and entered into force on 18 June 2025.

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 202500466995 - Information Released - Documents

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PDF

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107.6 kB