Data on culls at Applecross and Couldoran salmon farms: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
Any data or information you have on culls at Applecross and Couldoran salmon farms since 1/1/2020. Listed in this FOI, on Page 193 an email from FHI to APHA, states "The company took the decision to cull the worst affected stock, with the remaining fish moved to sea. I don’t have figures yet for the number culled".
The email implies that the cull figure will be known at some point. If this data is recorded somewhere I would like a copy of all data about culls. Otherwise I would like all internal emails that make a reference to culls at either of those two sites.
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.
- Most of the cull data that Scottish Government receives from the relevant companies is input directly into a Mortality Information Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which is published on our website here: Mortality+information+-+until+end+May+2025.xlsx. This, along with guidance on the mortality reporting system, can be found under the following web link: Fish Health Inspectorate: mortality information - 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.
- Some information on cull data may have been recorded in case information recorded during Fish Health Inspectorate visits. The individual cases are published on our website at the link here: Publication of Fish Health Inspectorate information - gov.scot. To assist you in locating the relevant documents a list of cases relevant to the sites in your request is enclosed as Annex A.
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.
- Some information on cull data can be found as part of a response published to a previous EIR case reference number 202500446495. Please refer to page 39 of the Annex of information released: Farmed salmon escapes correspondence: 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.
- I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. Please find enclosed six additional PDF items. These are internal emails and some between the fish health inspectorate and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) which reference culls at the relevant sites. Although not internal, we interpreted your request to include emails between the Scottish Government and APHA.
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.
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 we are responding on behalf of the Scottish Government only. As APHA is part of the UK government, you may wish to contact them directly: How to make a freedom of information (FOI) request: How to make an FOI request - GOV.UK.
About FOI
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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