Illegal fishing in marine protected areas: EIR release

Information requested

“For the period spanning from 26 May 2020 to 31 December 2023, please tell me the number of:

• Reports of illegal fishing in marine protected areas which were substantiated by Marine Scotland and what action was taken.
• Cases referred to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.
• Cases which proceeded to trial.
• Cases which resulted in a fine.
• Fixed penalty notices issued by Marine Scotland.

Please include relevant dates, location, the amount of each fine, and the operating company of each vessel.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption 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 exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answers to your questions are:

For the period 26 May 2020 to 31 December 2023:
Reports of Illegal Fishing in marine protected areas24 reports of fishing in protected areas within Scottish waters were investigated by the Marine Directorate (formerly Marine Scotland) for potential breaches of fisheries legislation.

Following investigation, the below subsequent actions were taken: 

• no further action was taken in 8 cases.
• a warning letter was issued for one case.
• 4 cases were referred directly to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
• 12 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued for 11 cases.

Under the legislation, if an FPN remains unpaid it must then be referred to COPFS. Within the period of your request, 6 FPNs were not paid, and the cases were referred to the COPFS. One was revoked.

Cases referred to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.

As noted above, 10 case referred to COPFS - 4 were directly referred, 6 were for cases where the offered FPN was not paid.

Cases which proceeded to trial.

Of the 10 cases that were referred to COPFS, two cases have proceeded to trial. Both cases involved the same vessel, but one case was taken against the master and the other case against the owner. A further two cases have court dates set but the remaining cases are still awaiting the next stage in proceedings.

Cases which resulted in a fine.

Of the two case that have proceeded to trial, one resulted in a fine for the master of a vessel who was fined £2625, plus a victim surcharge of £175.

Fixed penalty notices issued by Marine Scotland.

12 FPNs were issued for 11 cases as detailed below.

Date of Offence	Location	FPN	Operating Company
03/12/2020	Area to the west of North Uist subject to a seasonal closure	£4000	Scrabster Seafoods Limited
09/03/2021	Long Hole Seasonal closure	£4000	Redacted (Reg 10(5) (b)
10/10/2021	Noss Head protected area	£4000	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)
18/10/2021	Loch Gairloch protected area	£4000	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)
10/03/2022	Papa Bank seasonal closure	£2000	Redacted (Reg 11(2))
08/03/2022	North West Sule seasonal closure	£4000	Faithlie Fishing Limited
31/05/2022	Loch Roag protected area	£1000	Redacted (Reg 11(2))
01/09/2022	North West Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems at Rockall	£4000	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)
29/01/2023	Mull Box protected area	2 x £4000 (one for master, one for owner)	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)
27/03/2023	Closed area within the Firth of Clyde	£4000	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)
29/11/2023	South Arran protected area	£10,000	Redacted (Reg 10(5)(b)

Further information on Fixed Penalty Notices can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/marinecompliance- fixed-penalty-notices/.

Further information on Enforcement Statistics can be found at: Reporting statistics from marine and fisheries compliance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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 an exception under regulation 10(5)(b) (course of justice) of the EIRs applies to that information as seven cases are either live cases with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service or are still within the permitted period to accept an FPN.

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.

We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in not impacting on the course of justice where there are current legal proceedings underway or likely to take place in the future, and ability of the accused to receive a fair trial.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) also applies to some of the information requested because in two cases the vessels are owned by individuals and not companies. Ownership details in these case is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.