All Correspondence FSS Had to Cease Monitoring Phytoplankton in Loch Creran, from July 2019

Your request was about the following information:

‘The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, under Regulation 9 - ‘the duty to provide advice and assistance', 9(1), state that: 'A Scottish public authority shall provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so, to applicants and prospective applicants:

1. Under the terms of the EIR regulations and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, please advise and assist me by identifying and providing (in electronic form) all correspondence between Food Standards Scotland and other Scottish Government Agencies or Ministers, including SEPA, Marine Scotland and NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)), concerning Food Standards Scotland’s decision to cease monitoring phytoplankton in Loch Creran, from July 2019.
2. Please also identify and provide all correspondence between FSS and Scottish Sea Farms Ltd, on this or other matters concerning Loch Creran. Please consider this a request for information under the relevant Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations including both the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (as well as any other new or other regulations which may be appropriate).’

I enclose a copy showing some of the information you have requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. T

1. Food Standards Scotland had some correspondence with other Scottish Government Agencies or Ministers concerning FSS’s decision to cease monitoring phytoplankton in Loch Crenan from July 2019. Section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to the content. Please see the attached document for the information we hold relating to your request. 
2. Information not held