Correspondence regarding specific aquaculture applications: EIR release
- Published
- 14 April 2026
- Directorate
- Environment and Forestry Directorate
- FOI reference
- EIR/202600503578
- Date received
- 27 January 2026
- Date responded
- 24 February 2026
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
Under Freedom of Information law, please could you provide me with copies of any internal and external email correspondence to and from your domain in the past year which mentions the aquaculture applications "fishtalk" or "Mercatus Farmer"? Include any attachments in their original format.
Please also include copies of any briefings, minutes, agendas or other documents which mention either of the two applications.
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 have included copies of the information you have requested in Annex B.
On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. These exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.
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.
- File type
- File size
- 1.7 MB
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