National Marine Plan Assessment queries: EIR release

Information requested

I would be grateful if you could send me the following information to assist our understanding of the Scottish Ministers’ approach to discharging their duties under Section 15 of the 2010 Act:

1. Please confirm whether the Scottish Ministers are continuing to use the current assessment to make marine authorisation decisions or if decision-making has been suspended pending the production of the new assessment.

2. Please provide copies of all scallop dredge and bottom trawl authorisation decisions made by the Scottish Ministers using the current assessment.

3. I understand that the previous assessment expired on 31 December 2025 (please find a copy attached and see the ‘period to which the assessment applies’ on page 1). The current assessment is dated 10 February 2026. Please confirm which assessment (if any) was used to make marine authorisation decisions taken between 1 January 2026 and 9 February 2026, and confirm the number and nature of any decisions made during this period.

Response

Please note that as per our email acknowledgement of 14 May 2025 Part 1 of your request has been responded to outwith the EIRs separately. Our response for Parts 2 & 3 of your request under the EIRs can be found below for your convenience.

Part 2

I am releasing copies of the information you requested.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.

If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

I also wish to highlight that a small amount of information has been withheld from the documents disclosed under Regulation 11(2) (Personal Data) as it contains personal information and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and in Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’.

Part 3

Between 1 January 2026 and 9 February 2026, officials continued to use the earlier Domestic Licence Assessment until the assessment dated 10 February 2026 came into effect. During that period, 27 licensing decisions were made. Those decisions related to the authorisation decisions covered by the Domestic Licence Assessment in force at that time.

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.