Non U.K owned fish vessel landings 2022/23: EIR release

Information requested

In light of your reply could you let me know the number of non U.K. owned vessels that landed in 2022 and 2023?

Response

1. Landings in 2023; The tables provided below show the number of landings into Scotland by nationality in 2023.

Landings into Scotland by Nationality
	Year 01/01/2023 to 30/06/2023
Vessel Nationality	Number of Landings	%
Scotland	22616	96%
England	485	2%
Spain	129	1%
France	124	1%
Northern Ireland	101	0%
Isle of Man	98	0%
Wales	11	0%
Norway	10	0%
Ireland	0	0%
Denmark	3	0%
Total	23577	100%
Landings into Scotland by Nationality
	Year 01/07/2023 to 31/12/2023
Vessel Nationality	Number of Landings	%
Scotland	21101	96%
England	508	2%
Spain	33	0%
France	106	0%
Northern Ireland	99	0%
Isle of Man	189	1%
Wales	8	0%
Norway	4	0%
Ireland	2	0%
Denmark	0	0%
Total	22050	100%

2. Landings in 2022; While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested for 2022. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

The Scottish Government does not have the information. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

The reason that we do not have the number of non U.K. owned vessels that landed in 2022 is that we only started preparing these statistics in 2023.

This exception 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 exception.

We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the number of non U.K. owned vessels that landed into Scotland in 2022, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Additional information provided out with the EIRs

Under regulation 9 of the EIRs (our duty to provide advice and assistance) we would like to offer the knowledge that the general proportions are likely to be similar in 2022 as in 2023. Depending on the time of year, non-UK owned landings account for less than 2% of all landings during peak times.

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