Review into progressing standards of farmed fish welfare: EIR release

Information requested

1. All communications (including emails, letters, meeting notes, minutes, briefings, and internal memos) relating to the review into progressing standards of farmed fish welfare, including communications with external stakeholders such as Salmon Scotland, salmon farm operators, animal welfare organisations, and academic or scientific advisors.

2. Details of the “options” that were considered prior to the decision to introduce official guidance under Section 38 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. This should include any assessments, impact analyses, or advice provided to ministers.

3. The anticipated timeline or target date for publication or introduction of the official guidance.

4. Copies of any internal or external briefing papers, policy submissions, or correspondence provided to or from the Cabinet Secretary or senior officials relating to this decision.

5. Any consultations, workshops, or stakeholder engagement sessions undertaken as part of the review, including participant lists and summaries of discussions or findings.

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.

Please see Annex A for documents which fall within the scope of your request.

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, and the links below allow access to some of the requested information.

• Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, 13 March 2025
• https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/rural-affairs-and-islandscommittee/correspondence/2025/salmon-farming-cabinet-secretary-response.pdf
• Related Scottish Parliamentary Questions and First Minister’s Questions S6W- 39431, S6W-38095, S6W- 37799, S6W- 3639, S6W- 36400, S6W- 35636, S6W- 35638, S6W- 35006, S6W- 32135 can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in providing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because EIR exception(s) apply to that information:

• 10(4)(a) information not held
• 10(4)(d) material in course of completion, unfinished documents or incomplete information
• 10(4)(e) Internal communications
• 11(2) – personal data of a third party

The reasons why these exceptions apply is explained below in Annex B.

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 202500489448 - Information released - Annex A

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PDF

File size

988.9 kB

EIR 202500489448 - Information released - Annex B

File type

PDF

File size

186.9 kB