Well well well, thanks to the persistence of one of our correspondents, we now have an extensive freedom of information request from the Scottish Government – it is a damning indictment of Marine Scotland and blows open claims that the SG were not consulted. Now much of the details of who emails were sent to within the FOI has been heavily redacted and these email chains need read from bottom to top to make sense, however, it is very clear that Marine Scotland WERE CONSULTED on the the STS application on 9th December 2015. It is clear it was passed on within Marine Scotland the next morning. Then by January the head of ports and harbours at Victoria Quay declares they are broadly supportive of the application but suggests a reasonable/ neutral public stance suggesting highlighting CFPA’s track record – it reads like a CFPA press statement. The same correspondent does highlight they haven’t been to minister with this. Is there an emerging picture of SG civil servant deciding how this will be played out? We have much much more to come. Read exhibit 1 below.
