· FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Proposed ban on exporting live animals outwith UK: EIR release
Information requested
(a.) Advice received by Scottish Ministers which informed their recent decision not to support a UK wide ban on the export of live animals outside of the UK, including advice not only from agricultural departments, but also that from the Scottish Government animal welfare division and any other advice received by Ministers.
(b.) Numbers of representations received since 6/2/18 (a) in support of the Scottish Government's position on this issue and (b) those who have expressed concern, anger or outrage at the Scottish Government's statement.
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
With regards to the first part of your query: Advice received by Scottish Ministers which informed their recent decision not to support a UK wide ban on the export of live animals outside of the UK, including advice not only from agricultural departments, but also that from the Scottish Government animal welfare division and any other advice received by Ministers. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide any of the information because exemptions under sections 11(2) "personal data relating to third party", 10(4)(e) "internal communications" and 6(1)(b) "information publicly available" of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained below.
We also note that the advice the Cabinet Secretary received on this matter is substantively the same as that provided in the answers to the Parliamentary Questions detailed below.
With regards to the second part of your query: Numbers of representations received since 6/2/18 (a) in support of the Scottish Government's position on this issue and (b) those who have expressed concern, anger or outrage at the Scottish Government's statement.
We note that the OneKind campaign on this issue states that 4,200 emails were sent to Mr Ewing to 'Ask the Scottish Government to stop opposing a live export ban'. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) also presented 333 postcards to Scottish Government Officials as part of a campaign to end the long distance export of live animals.
We can confirm that the number of representations outwith these campaigns received between 6/2/18 and 7/3/18 (a) in support is nil and (b) noting a lack of support for the publicised Scottish Government position is 88.
We have received one representation in support of transporting animals from the Scottish Islands to the mainland. We have also received one representation that didn't express a clear preference on this issue.
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 of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide any of the information because exemptions under sections 11(2) "personal data relating to third party", 10(4)(e) "internal communications" and 6(1)(b) "information publicly available" of the EIRs applies to that information.
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