Ministerial correspondence with Salmon Scotland Chief Executive: EIR release

Information requested

Written correspondence including (but not limited to) letters, emails, texts and WhatsApp messages, on any subject, from or to Salmon Scotland Chief Executive Tavish Scott, from or to the First Minister, Scottish Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers, Scottish Government Special Advisers, From 1 January 2024 to 18 June 2025.

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 instances where a company has acted on behalf of Salmon Scotland, so are including emails sent by Quantum Communications on behalf of Salmon Scotland. Some of the requested information is available in a previous EIR release: - Scottish Salmon Producers Association meetings: EIR release gov.scot.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format, and the above link allows access to some of the requested information. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in providing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

I also attach some of the information you requested at Annexes A and B. 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 exception(s) under regulation exceptions 10 (4)(a) information not held, (10(4)(d) material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete information, 10(5(e) substantial prejudice to confidentiality of commercial or industrial information, and 11(2) – personal data of a third party apply to that information. The reasons why these exceptions apply is explained below in Annex C.

ANNEX C - REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Regulation 10(4)(a) - information not held

The Scottish Government does not have some of the information. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs, 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 it is not available.

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 correspondence between Tavish Scott, CEO of Salmon Scotland and Scottish Government Ministers and SPADs, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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

An exception under regulation 10(4)(d) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested as it is in draft form. 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, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring that unfinished documents are 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.

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

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs 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 confidentiality of commercial information provided by Salmon Scotland and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. Disclosing this information would be likely to give Salmon Scotland's competitors an advantage by having commercially sensitive information on the company.

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 commercial interests of companies so that they are not at a competitive disadvantage.

Exception 11(2) – personal data of a third party

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies 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.

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 20250471558 - Information released - Annex A

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PDF

File size

2.3 MB

EIR 20250471558 - Information released - Annex B

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PDF

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720.1 kB