· FOI/EIR · not held
Sea lice reports since introduction of policy: EIR release
Information requested
Sea lice reports, including numbers, received since the introduction of the new sea lice policy in 2016.
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.
I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.
Some of the information you have requested has been published through our responses to other FoI requests:
Sea lice information Oct 2016 – Feb 2017 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Publications/MSFOIEIrDisclosures/sealice Sea lice information 17 Feb – 3 Sept /publications/foi-17-02315/
I have provided an additional spread sheet containing all of the information you requested from 3 September to the date of your request.
Background Information
Scottish Government's fish health inspectorate do not hold a complete dataset of sea lice on farmed fish in Scotland. The data released has been generated from the new sea lice policy, first introduced in October 2016. Details of the policy can be found here; http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Publications/TopicSheets/tslist/sealiceregs
You may also be interested in data compiled by the that the Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation (SSPO). The SSPO release a quarterly and annual summary of average sea lice numbers on fish farms per reporting area in Scotland. SSPO Fish Health Reports can be found in the 'Farming' section; http://scottishsalmon.co.uk/farming/.
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. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.