Infringements of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) fisheries management rules: EIR release

Information requested

• The number of incidents reported to Marine Scotland of suspected or actual infringements of MPA fisheries management rules (hereafter ‘incidents’) since 16 August 2015 until present day.
• The number of reported incidents subsequently investigated by Marine Scotland which led to an enforcement action, and a breakdown of the type of any enforcement action taken (eg Fixed Penalty Notice, public prosecution).
• The number of individual vessels these incidents relate to, including those reported to Marine Scotland between 16 August 2015 to present day.
• The names of the MPAs in which these incidents have been reported, and the number of incidents reported at each MPA.
• The number of incidents reported relating to fishing with a) trawling gear, b) dredging gear and c) creeling gear d) any other form of fishing

The total number of such incidents occurring in each year, including and since 2015

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.

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.  It is attached at the annex. 

Some of the information you have requested is available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-18-01093/.   This provides figures addressing most of your questions for the period covering 22 May 2017 to 8 May 2018.  

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.   

 

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.

foi-19-01324 Annex

File type

4 page PDF

File size

110.4 kB