FOI/202600505641 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands meeting with the Managing Director of Sales & Marketing at Mowi: EIR release
Information requested
Any pre-meeting briefing provided to the Cabinet Secretary Mhairi Geoghan prior to her meeting with Mowi MD Bertil Buysee on the 6th May 2025, a list of all attendees and the agenda for each meeting and any note/minute and actions points that were recorded from the meeting.
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 the information you have requested in Annex B.
It may be helpful if I explain that the meeting with Mowi MD Bertil Buysee on 6 May 2025 took place during the Seafood Expo held in Barcelona from 5 to 7 May. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands was provided with one pack containing briefing for all meetings held over the duration of the Conference, I have therefore provided you with an extract from the full pack that falls within the scope of your request.
On reviewing materials within the scope of your request, exceptions have been applied in line with the EIRs. These exceptions applied can be found in Annex A.
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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.