Mass stranding of pilot whales information: EIR release

Information requested

1. Any correspondence between the Scottish Government and British Divers Marine Life Rescue, UK Cetacean Strandings Investigations Programme, British Divers Marine Life Rescue and Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme regarding the mass stranding of pilot whales in Lewis in July 2023 (pod of 55 died) and the mass stranding of pilot whales in Orkney in July 2024 (77 dead animals).

2. Any postmortem reports and investigation reports regarding the two mass strandings.

3. Which organisations/businesses the information has been shared with.

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.

We have interpreted your request to include:

1. Correspondence between Scottish Government and any of the named organisations in regard to the mass strandings of 2023 and 2024.

2. A copy of any post mortem or investigation report regarding the two stranding events.

3. A list of named organisations the information in part 2 was shared with.

Response to part 1 of your request

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. Please find enclosed four PDF documents comprising items 1 to 8, item 9, item 10 and item 11.

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 11(2) (personal data of a third party) and 10(4)(a) (information not held) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why those exceptions apply is explained below.

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.

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 part 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 of the following reason:

There was no communication between the Scottish Government and British Divers Marine Life Rescue during either the 2023 or 2024 mass stranding events.

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 correspondence between the Scottish Government and British Divers Marine Life Rescue during either the 2023 or 2024 mass stranding events, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Response to part 2 of your request

The Scottish Government does not have some of the information

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 part 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 of the following reason:

No investigation report or post mortem reports for the 2024 mass stranding event are held by, or have been shared with, Scottish Government.

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 any report for the 2024 mass stranding event, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to advise you that the 2023 annual report published by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme includes some details of pathological findings following the 2023 long finned pilot whale mass stranding here:

Marine Mammal Strandings Co-ordination and Investigation (Scotland)

Regulation 10(4)(d) – material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete data

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 an exception under regulation 10(4)(d) (material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete data) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested because it is material which is still in the course of completion:

• The 2023 mass stranding report, currently being drafted by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme team.
• A separate acoustic report carried out by the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government.

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 will be met by our planned publication of both these items in the near future, the first report is anticipated to be published in September 2025, the second within four weeks of today’s date.

However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that information which is under active consideration 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.

Response to part 3 of your request

The answer to your third question is some information has been shared with the University of St Andrews. They were asked to review a draft of the Scottish Government acoustic report.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to advise you that since your request was submitted we have been advised that the publication of the 2023 mass stranding report by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme has been delayed. As explained under the previous section we now anticipate this will be published in early September 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 202500467178 - Information released - Documents

File type

PDF

File size

651.5 kB