Fish transfer to fish farms: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Information requested
You referred to a previous request (EIR 202500453654) relating to cleaner fish transfer to fish farms and which covered the time period 17 August to 31 December 2024. You have now asked for further data, relating to the time period 2020 to 2024, obtained through inspections conducted between 01 January to 01 July 2025.
In our previous communications with you on 19 March 2025, we reiterated the fact that the surveillance programme applied to fish farm sites in Scotland, takes place over a three-year time period. Under the current programme a complete set of movement records covering 2024 may not be available until late 2027.
Consequently, we have identified sites which have been inspected between 01 January to 01 July 2025 and include any relevant records relating to these, going back to the beginning of 2020, or the date of the last inspection, and up to the end of 2024.
Response
Please find attached a copy of extracted information from the movement records collected through the Marine Directorate’s aquatic animal health surveillance programme, relevant to sites inspected between 01 January and 01 July 2025.
It is not always possible to tell from the information held the exact source of the cleaner fish, or indeed whether these relate to wild or farmed animals. In some situations, we have annotated the spreadsheet to include instances of suspected wild caught fish.
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. This specifically applies to names of individuals involved in the capture of wild wrasse species.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG