EIR/202600503853 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Agricultural holdings data for Sanday, Orkney: EIR release
Information requested
I am seeking non-personal, anonymised agricultural holdings data for Sanday, Orkney, specifically:
1. Number of agricultural holdings
Please provide the total number of registered agricultural holdings on Sanday that have:
a CPH (County Parish Holding) number, and/or are registered as an agricultural business for the purposes of IACS (Integrated Administration and Control System) SAF (Single Application Form)Please provide data for the most recent year available.
Please provide data for the most recent year available.
2. Agricultural land area
For the same holdings, please provide:
Total agricultural area (hectares), broken down by: Permanent grass Temporary grass Rough grazing Arable Other land categories used in the IACS/SAF return
Anonymised aggregated figures only — not farm-level data.
3. Optional — livestock totals (aggregated)
If held and releasable under FOISA, please provide total livestock numbers for Sanday (latest year):
Cattle Sheep Pigs Other livestock categories
Again, aggregate totals only.
Format
Please supply all information in digital format, preferably CSV, Excel, or PDF.
Personal data
For clarity, I am not requesting any personal data or any information that would identify individual farmers, crofters, landowners, or businesses.
All requested data may be provided in fully anonymised, aggregated form.
This information will support community energy and resilience planning in the Sanday islands, including assessing agricultural implications for local retrofit and carbon-reduction projects. It will not be used for commercial marketing.
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.
1. Number of agricultural holdings for the most recent year available (2025):
There are 96 registered agricultural holdings on Sanday with a County Parish Holding (CPH) number.
Out of this population, 28 of the registered agricultural holdings submitted a Single Application Form (SAF) in 2025 for the purposes of IACS/SAF.
2. Agricultural land area (aggregated)
The total aggregated agricultural land area declared on the registered agricultural holdings on Sanday in 2025 is set out below:
All figures are provided in hectares and represent anonymised, aggregated data only.
Agricultural Land Cover Claimed Area Permanent grass 2922.26 ha Temporary grass 417.41 ha Rough grazing 358.64 ha Arable cropping 223.22 ha Other declared land 2.94 ha
Please note that the agricultural land area is based on declarations made within SAF 2025 applications and does not include unregistered, unutilised or unclaimed land.
3. Livestock totals (aggregated)
The total aggregated livestock numbers declared on the registered agricultural holdings with SAF applications for Sanday in 2025 is set out below:
Livestock Type Aggregated Livestock Number Cattle (all ages) 3625 Sheep (all ages) 2737 Pigs 16 Other Livestock Poultry 281 Horses 14
Please note that livestock figures are based on numbers present at 01/03/2025 and will not include livestock held on holdings that did not submit a SAF application in the relevant year.
4. Format
This information is provided in aggregated form only and does not identify any individual farmer, crofter, landowner, or business.
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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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.
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