Harport salmon farm information: EIR release

Information requested

Information relating to the Mowi Harport salmon farm (Isle of Skye) for the period 1st March 2025 – 30th April 2025:

1. Copies of all inspection reports, mortality returns, and welfare assessments for Harport conducted or received by the Fish Health Inspectorate.

2. Copies of all communications (emails, letters, meeting notes, reports, or briefings) between the Fish Health Inspectorate (or Marine Scotland) and:

• The Soil Association
• RSPCA / RSPCA Assured
• Mowi Scotland
• SEPA

relating to Harport or to organic salmon farming standards/welfare during the above time frame.

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.

Point 1

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) information websites. The Scottish Government pro-actively publish FHI inspection case sheets, which can be found here https://www.gov.scot/publications/fish-health-inspectorate-case-information-2025/. In addition the Scottish Government has a voluntary agreement with aquaculture sector stakeholders for instances of mortality above specified thresholds to be reported to the FHI. The SGMD mortality information can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/fish-health-inspectorate-mortalityinformation/. Further to this, Salmon Scotland publish monthly mortality rates for salmon sites, which can be found at: https://www.salmonscotland.co.uk/reports.

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 and I will send you a paper copy.

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 parts of your request, as detailed below, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. 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 the Scottish Government is not responsible for welfare assessments. Under the current regulatory remit, the FHI have no statutory responsibility with respect to welfare within farmed animals. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are responsible for investigating potential breaches in welfare law. 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 welfare assessments at the Harport salmon farm, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

As stated, the APHA are responsible for investigating potential breaches in welfare law, so they may be able to help you further in this request. Further information on how to contact the APHA can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/contact-apha

Point 2

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. We have some correspondence with the Soil Association during the dates specified.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some 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.

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 the Scottish Government does not hold any communications with the RSPCA, Mowi Scotland or SEPA relating to Harport salmon farm or organic salmon farming standards/welfare during the specified time frame. 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 communications with relevant third parties regarding the Harport salmon farm or organic salmon farming standards/welfare, 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.

EIR 202500483004 - Information released - Document

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