Soil Association Certification must disclose inspection reports relating to salmon farms it certifies as ‘organic’ after the organisation’s appeal was dismissed by the first-tier tribunal.
A tribunal has dismissed an appeal made by the certification body, finding that it performs a public administrative role when it certifies products as organic and as a result it must respond directly to requests for environmental information.
The ruling follows a decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office that Soil Association Certification is a public authority for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations.
The proceedings came about as Wildfish, a charity campagning for wild fish and their environment, requested inspection documents relating to Scottish salmon farms certified as organic in May 2024 but was not provided them.
Wildfish argued it was environmental information and should be disclosed in the public interest. Soil Association Certification maintained it was not itself a public authority and that any disclosure obligations lay with Defra.
After a two-day hearing, the tribunal dismissed the appeal and Wildfish will now analyse the inspection reports once disclosed and publish findings in the public interest.
“This ruling vindicates the reasonable request for information that Wildfish first made over 18 months ago,” said Wildfish in a statement.
“Inspection reports go to the heart of whether organic certification of salmon farming is credible at all,” it added. “The fact that their disclosure was resisted, and had to be tested all the way to tribunal, only reinforces why independent scrutiny is essential.”
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“We have never sought to withhold information, as has been wrongfully suggested by some,” argued Dominic Robinson, CEO of Soil Association Certification. “It is the right reporting channels for the information, not the reporting of the information itself, that is in question and that we seek to ensure is clearly set out.”
He added that the position of the certification throughout had been that it is contracted to provide the information to Defra, which then determines the appropriate release of information.
“The information that Wildfish has requested therefore could be requested via Defra,” he explained. “We are now considering the points raised by the tribunal and our next steps.”
Organic standards
Wildfish also argued that farmed salmon was “not organic in any meaningful sense” and therefore it should “stop being used to greenwash an inherently damaging industry”.
The Soil Association warned it would withdraw from the salmon sector if no meaningful progress was delivered by summer 2026.
“Today, our organic salmon standards are the highest in the sector,” said Soil Association standards director Sarah Compson. “But the big question we’re asking now is how and if developing our standards further will be enough to address the concerns being raised about the long-term sustainability and viability of salmon farming in Scotland.”
She added: “While we are proposing making significant changes, as it currently stands, consumers have a choice to buy salmon from farms with lower stocking densities, where the most harmful and polluting medicines are banned, and where feed must come from certified sustainable sources.”
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