Inshore Fisheries Management Improvement (IFMI): call for evidence

What happens next?

This Call for Evidence is open for a 10 week period. The responses received will be instrumental in enabling us to develop a framework more fully based on the received evidence after it closes. We will engage with stakeholders to refine the proposal and consider implementation and monitoring before bringing it to public consultation in late 2025 to receive views on a final proposal. Following consideration of consultation responses, we expect to begin implementation in late 2026.

Responding to this call for evidence

This Call for Evidence will be open from 26 November 2024 and closes on 04 February 2025. Please respond to this call for evidence using the Scottish Government's consultation hub: "Citizen Space". You can access and provide your evidence here.

You can save and return to your response while the Call for Evidence remains open. Please try to answer all the questions. If you are unable to answer any particular question, please feel free to move on to the next. Please note that you will be asked to explain the reasons for your answers with regards to some of the questions on the Citizen Space hub.

How to make an enquiry about this Call for Evidence

If you have any queries about this consultation please contact the Scottish Government's Inshore Fisheries Team at: inshore@gov.scot.

Handling your response

If you respond using the Citizen Space hub, you will be directed to the ‘About You’ page before submitting your response. Please indicate on the ‘Respondent Information Form’ how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential and treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and your responses might be subject to Freedom of Information requests.

To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made publicly available at Scottish Government Consultations. If you use the Citizen Space hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

When the Call for Evidence closes all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help to decide whether and how to progress the IFMI proposal. A Call for Evidence summary report will also be published that will include an anonymised analysis of the responses received and set out the next steps.