EIR/202600510420 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence relating to the impact of appeals under Sea Lice Risk Framework: EIR release
Information requested
In a letter to the Scottish Government on 12 March 2025, Salmon Scotland said that fish farms would be appealing against variation notices imposed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) under the Sea Lice Risk Framework. I subsequently reported that 210 appeals had been lodged.
Please could the Scottish Government provide copies of any correspondence, emails, reports, memos or other recorded information relating to the impact of these appeals since the start of March 2025.
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 have included copies of some of the information you have requested in ANNEX B.
On reviewing materials within scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. The exceptions applied can be found in ANNEX A.
In addition, you may find it helpful to note that information relating to the Environmental Enforcement Appeal case, reference ENVE-003-33, can be found online on the Scottish Government Planning and Environmental Appeals Division website, which can be found here.
About FOI
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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 of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.