Meetings between Head of Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) and Salmon aquaculture companies: EIR release

Information requested

Dates, agendas and minutes of all direct meetings (in person and remote) between the Head of the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) and senior personnel of Salmon Scotland or any of the salmon aquaculture companies operating in Scotland during the period 01 January 2022 to 26 July 2025.

Direct meetings can include other individuals as long as the head of the Fish Health Inspectorate was present along with specific senior personnel of Salmon Scotland.

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.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in Annex B.

Some of the information you have requested is available from https://www.gov.scot/groups/strategicframework-for-farmed-fish-health/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ZX0-vhnT4. 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. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in Annex A to this letter.

Clarifications on the information released under your request

The “BTA/Salmon Scotland/SG catch up” is a series of regular informal engagements, between government officials and representatives from Salmon Scotland and the British Trout Association (BTA) which the Head of the FHI often attends. This engagement facilitates regular information exchange and collaborative discussion. Formal agendas are not issued and the discussion topics, presented in Annex B, have been extracted from pre meeting email communications setting broad areas of interest to attending parties and are annotated where necessary for clarity.

It is important to note that due to the involvement of multiple stakeholders, some discussion topics may have received limited or no input from either the Head of the FHI and/or Salmon Scotland. This statement is also extended to other enclosures in Annex B.

ANNEX A

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

The Scottish Government does not have the information

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), 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 not all meetings are formally recorded and documented. Consequently, it is possible that meetings may have occurred between the Head of the FHI and senior personnel of Salmon Scotland or any of the salmon aquaculture companies operating in Scotland, for which no official record exists. Additionally, where meetings did take place, agendas or minutes may not have been produced.

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 information about, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

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.

FOI 202500477584 - Information released - Annex B

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