EIR/ 202600519821 Review of 202600510420 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence relating to the impact of appeals under Sea Lice Risk Framework: EIR Review
Information requested
Original request 202600510420
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.
Your request for EIR review (202600519821)
Thank you for your response to my freedom of information request on the impact of the salmon industry’s appeals against proposed lice controls, pasted and attached (your reference:202600510420). I now wish to request an internal review of information that has been withheld.
The Scottish Government has withheld many sections of the briefings and emails released under 10(4)(e) of the Environmental Information Regulations, arguing that they are “internal communications”. Without having seen the information, it is hard to judge whether it is really in the public interest to keep all of them secret, especially given the huge public interest in the environmental impacts of the salmon farming industry.
I would therefore be grateful if the Scottish Government could review the sections withheld under 10(4)(e) of the Environmental Information Regulations to check whether it could be in the public interest to release them.
Response
I can confirm that our original decision of 20 May 2026 should be confirmed, with modifications. I can confirm we are releasing a small amount of additional information.
In this instance I have considered your original request and subsequent request for review on the basis of whether Regulation 10(4)(e) (Internal Communications) of the EIRs has been applied correctly alongside the relevant applicable public interest test(s).
I have given careful consideration to the original response and I agree, in general, with the exception applied. However I have decided that some of the information should have been released.
In re-evaluating the information previously withheld I have considered that the domain names of some of the generic mailbox addresses should have been released. I apologise this was not released to you previously.
As noted above we are maintaining our reliance on Regulation 10(4)(e) to the remaining information withheld from disclosure under this exemption and I have outlined the reasoning behind this below.
It may help if I explain that the documents provided in our original response constitute records of discussions pertaining to the development of Scottish Government policy in addition to legal advice (the latter of which would be subject to legal professional privilege (LPP)). Whilst I recognise that there is a public interest on the topic of appeals lodged by fish farm operators against the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) sea lice regulatory framework and any associated documentation held by the Scottish Government in relation to these, this is outweighed by the stronger public interest in maintaining the right to confidentiality of communications which are subject to LPP and to ensure that Scottish Ministers and/or Scottish Government officials have a private space to receive and subsequently deliberate the content of said communications for the purposes of policy development or implementation where required.
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
In this instance I have considered your original request and subsequent request for review on the basis of whether Regulation 10(4)(e) (Internal Communications) of the EIRs has been applied correctly alongside the relevant applicable public interest test(s). As noted above we are maintaining our reliance on Regulation 10(4)(e) to the remaining information withheld from disclosure under this exemption and I have outlined the reasoning behind this below.