Cooke Aquaculture meeting on the 6th May 2025: EIR release

Information requested

Any pre-meeting briefing provided to the Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon prior to her meeting with Cooke aquaculture on the 6th May 2025, a list of all attendees and the agenda for the meeting and any note/minute and actions points that were recorded from the meeting.

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.

Response to your request

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

It may be helpful if I explain that the meeting with Cooke Aquaculture on 7 May 2025 took place during the Seafood Expo held in Barcelona from 5 to 7 May. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands was provided with one pack containing briefing for all meetings held over the duration of the Conference, I have therefore provided you with an extract from the full briefing pack that falls within the scope of your request.

We do not hold any records of a meeting haven taken place with Cooke Aquaculture on 6 May, our records show that a meeting with Cooke Aquaculture took place on 7 May and we have interpreted your request as seeking information in relation to the meeting on 7 May.

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.

EIR 202600505617 - Information Released - Annex

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