Information used to formulate answer to written question S6W-42673: EIR release

Information requested

Any internal or external correspondence, briefings, memorandums or notes used to formulate:

1. The answer to written question S6W-42673 (19 December 2025).

2. The first paragraph of page six of the Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon's letter to the RAIC committee (13 March 2025), in particular the claim: "Further data collections would represent significant burden for producers" regarding Paragraph 76, recommending "comprehensive, consistent and transparent mortality figures that include the number of fish at a farm".

3. The Cabinet Secretary's position that mandatory mortality reporting "would be an additional burden on the sector" (as reported by RAIC chairman Finlay Carson in a meeting of parliament March 20, 2025).

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.

Question 1

I have included copies of the information you have requested in the attached Annex (B).

On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in the attached Annex (A).

Questions 2 & 3

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. Where information is already publicly available, I have provided you with the links to the relevant websites. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

It may help if I explain that the Scottish Government has previously published briefing notes prepared for the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands in preparation for her appearance at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee regarding salmon farming in Scotland that informed the positions on data collections and reporting noted in Questions 2 & 3 of your request. I have included a link to the publication here for your convenience, you may wish to review Annex A of the publication which provides further background information that you may find helpful.

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 202600503585 - Information released - Annex

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