EIR/202600513847 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Salmon Interactions Working Group correspondence: EIR release
Information requested
Copies of any correspondence with stakeholders on the Salmon Interactions Working Group between 1st July 2018 to 30 June 2020.
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.
Request for copies of correspondence with stakeholders on the Salmon Interactions Working Group
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 the attached Annex (A).
Additionally, under Regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
A small amount of documents within the scope of your request have been published online, I have included links to said documents below for your convenience:
Impacts of lice from fish farms on wild Scottish sea trout and salmon: summary of science Salmon Interactions Working Group report
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.
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.