FOI/202500485954 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence to Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity regarding Seagull Summit: EIR release
Information requested
‘Please can I request the following information:
Any correspondence sent to Jim Fairlie, at any point during 2025, relating to a summit or consultation relating to seagulls in Eyemouth. Any correspondence sent from Jim Fairlie, at any point during 2025, relating to a summit or consultation relating to seagulls in Eyemouth.’
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 ofupholding 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.
Request for copies of correspondence sent to and from the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity in relation to a summit or consultation regarding seagulls in Eyemouth
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 Annex A, below.
Annex A
A small amount of information has been redacted from the document disclosed under Regulation 11 – Personal Data as it contains personal information, 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’.
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Detected exemption language
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 ofupholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. Annex A A small amount of information has been redacted from the document disclosed under Regulation 11 – Personal Data as it contains personal information, 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.