Fish Health Inspectorate sea lice data: EIR release

Information requested

How many at sea fish farms in Scotland are audited by FHI staff for sea lice numbers, each year from 2020 to 2025 year to date or up to last recorded visit?

How many fully trained auditors are employed by FHI who can audit and count sea lice numbers?
 

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 the information you have requested as follows:

The Fish Health Inspectorate conducted the following inspections associated with sea lice between the years of 2020 and 2025:

Year	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Sea Lice Inspection	59	119	70	89	69	84
Enhanced Sea Lice Inspection	1	6	8	6	7	12

Sea lice assessment is undertaken in accordance with the provisions of the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Acts 2007 & 2013 – further detail is available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/policies/fish-health-inspectorate/surveillance-programme/.

Both the SLI and the SLA involve inspection of the farmed stocks on site and the records which are maintained, assessing whether appropriate actions have been taken when required. Sea lice enhanced inspections involve a greater scrutiny of those records and the measures in place and can involve inspection of the count procedure and the treatment administration procedures. Both types of inspection are aimed at assessing whether the Authorised Production Business has satisfactory measures in place with respect to the prevention, control and reduction of sea lice on the sites which it operates.

There are currently 15 Fish Health Inspectors operating within the Marine Directorate’s Fish Health Inspectorate. All inspectors have been trained to undertake SLI and SLA inspections, as well as many other types of inspection associated with aquatic animal health surveillance. Three technical managers can also operate as fish health inspectors and undertake these functions, although field work for these staff members is less frequent.

Inspectors do not routinely undertake sea lice counts but rather observe the counting process which is taking place on site to ensure this is satisfactory. If necessary, sea lice counts can be conducted by fish health inspectors to verify numbers.

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.