Seal Licensing queries: EIR release

Information requested

I have found the Seal Licensing FAQ at the following location - this dates from 2010:

https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20230727172322/http://www.gov.scot/publications/seal-licensing-frequently-asked-questions/ 

It contains a flow chart explaining the arrangements, see below. Can you confirm if this is the current arrangement for seal licensing, as I am unable to find an updated version on the Scottish government website?

Can you please also provide me with the letters from Marine Scotland Science and Nature Scotland to Marine Scotland Licensing as part of the seal license consultations?

The licences that I am interested in are for removal of seals from Scotland's rivers to protect salmon. I am interested in the following years, 2024,2023,2022,2021 and 2020.

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.

The flowchart referenced in the EIR is an archived document and does not clearly reflect current process. For up to date guidance on Seal Licence applications, please see Seal licensing - gov.scot

For your awareness, there has been a significant change to seal licensing in recent years (legislation changed in 2020) that has seen the removal of licensable purposes (f) to protect the health and welfare of farmed fish and (g) to prevent serious damage to fisheries or fish farms from the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. In practical terms, this means that applications received since 2020 have only been for research and for the conservation of wild Atlantic salmon.

I enclose some of the information requested. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting.

Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the Scottish Government will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright material on the National Archives website at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ 

Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organization, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non-Crown Copyright information). 

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 202500467479 - Information released - Annex A

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