FOI/202500497836 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Information in relation to Aird Salmon Farm: EIR release
Information requested
1. Sea-lice data submitted by the operator
For the period 1 June 2025 to the present, please provide:
All weekly sea-lice returns submitted by the site operator for the site “Aird”, including: the weekly average adult female lice values any nil returns any reasons given for no count any metadata or explanatory notes supplied by the operator any corrections or resubmissions
Please include the original unedited submissions in the form received by Marine Scotland / FHI.
2. Internal FHI / Marine Scotland communications about this site
For the same date range, please provide:
All internal emails, letters, memos, briefing notes or other correspondence within Marine Scotland or the Fish Health Inspectorate that refer to: the site “Aird” its fallow status lice counts / sampling data gaps retrospective population or correction of sea-lice values discussions about publishing, amending, or updating the public dataset
Please include attachments, drafts, and documents created during that communication.
3. Communications with external parties
Provide copies of all communications (emails, letters, phone call notes, or meeting minutes) between Marine Scotland / FHI and:
the site operator any industry body SEPA local authority any third party
relating to:
sea-lice reporting at Aird the site’s fallow status retrospective addition, amendment, or correction of lice data any questions about data accuracy or compliance
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.
A copy of the information you have requested is provided to you along with a document detailing the information being released as part of our response. There may be some duplication in the information provided where this relates to email conversations and separate chains of communication exist.
Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Parliament website and specific links are provided within the relevant documents being released. 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.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
In addition, we have redacted some information which is not relevant to your request but is contained within documents being released.
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. An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.