SFPA - Annual Report and Accounts 1998-1999

policing activity ashore

The Agency's Sea Fisheries Inspectorate is divided into three separate areas, each under the control of a local Area Manager. The enforcement task around Scotland involves 75 Fishery Officers who are deployed from 18 fishery offices in the main Scottish ports, as shown in fig.13. They are supported by 29 administrative staff who are responsible for statistical returns to HQ.

The coastline extends to some 2300 miles and includes 130 inhabited islands where landings might be made. The key operational objective in support of legislation and fisheries management priorities is to deter and detect illegal activity by:

providing a presence around the coast monitoring fish landings at the main markets checking documentation gathering evidence where infringements are detected conducting combined operations with patrol vessels

Staff of the Sea Fisheries Inspectorate operate flexible working patterns and different shift arrangements in order to maintain an element of surprise and unpredictability in their deployments to fish markets and other landing places. One of their principal tasks is to verify the accuracy of landings data by cross checking against logbooks with sales declarations (including area of capture using aerial and surface surveillance data) and by routine and random physical checks on fish as it is landed. During the year a total of 38,578 catch inspections and 31,128 logsheet inspections were undertaken.

The key targets for the Sea Fisheries Inspectorate (figs. 14 and 15) were (a) the cost of catch inspections which was set at £72 against an actual figure of £71 and (b) the percentage of landing declarations checked against actual catches landed which amounted to 47% compared with a target of 45%.

another successful year

During 1998 - 1999 the Agency HQ processed 123 case folders involving fisheries offences and 93 were reported to the Procurator Fiscal Service. Key performance targets were well met (figs. 16 and 17), both in terms of achievement of deadlines for submissions and the percentage of cases resulting in court proceedings. This was attributable in the main to the quality control measures in place and the disciplined approach taken to the completion of reports.

A notable development was the initiation of a number of legal challenges to certain aspects of UK fisheries management policy. One of the most significant related to the UK's quota management system on the grounds that the system in operation in the UK is discriminatory in contravention of European law. This case was referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Another case challenged the compatibility with EU law of the UK's licensing arrangements for the North Sea herring fishery.

A number of successful prosecutions in Scottish courts were the result of a strategy for greater co-operation with the Irish and Norwegian enforcement agencies in their investigations of infringements.

The table below gives a breakdown, by type of offence, of the 1111 formal written warnings issued by Fishery Officers locally for breaches of regulations and of the 123 cases reported to HQ with percentages of those not resulting in court proceedings because they failed to meet the required standard - for example, through lack of sufficient evidence.

The decision to reject cases was taken either by the Agency or by the Procurator Fiscal following the submission of a case folder.

The fisheries species involved in the 123 cases were: demersal - 90 cases, pelagic - 24, shellfish - 5, industrial - 1. There were also 3 non - boat cases involving breaches of the peace.