Red meat abattoir queries: EIR release

Information requested

1. How many licensed red meat abattoirs are there currently in Scotland?

2. How many licensed red meat abattoirs have closed in the last year in Scotland?

3. How many licensed red meat abattoirs have closed in the last five years in Scotland (please could you break that down by year)?

4. Any correspondence sent to or from the Scottish Government relating to the closure of red meat abattoirs within the last year.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested, due to exceptions under regulations: 11(2) (personal data); 6(1)(b) (information already publicly available); and 10(5)(e) (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information). The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained below.

An exception under regulation 11(2) (personal data) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. Where the environmental information requested includes personal data about an individual other than the applicant (third party personal data), the data does not have to be made available if disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles contained in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) (confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception allows us to withhold information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by law to protect a legitimate economic interest.

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 however, this is outweighed by the public interest in withholding information that if released would be likely to cause substantial harm to a legitimate economic interest.

An exception under regulation 6(1)(b) (information already publicly available) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested, because it is already publicly available. Web addresses have been provided for the briefing papers referenced in Email 3.

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 202500471916 - Information Released - Documents

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