Scotland's Marine Atlas: Information for The National Marine Plan

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SCOTLAND'S CORE MARINE SECTOR

Trends in GVA, turnover and employment

This analysis examines the core marine sector in terms of Gross Value Added ( GVA), turnover and employment from 2000-2008 with figures extracted from the Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI). The industries that form the core marine sector are listed in the table and pie chart. GVA is the value of the output produced minus the cost of all inputs and raw materials used in its production.

The seas have generated a significant amount of economic output and, on this basis, are a valuable asset to the future of the Scottish economy. Overall, the core marine sector, minus the extraction of oil and gas, contributed £3,577M (£3,626M when adjusted to 2009 prices) of GVA in 2008, which amounted to 3.5% of overall Scottish GVA. Extraction of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas contributed a further £13,334M in 2007. ⁱ Around 39,800 ⁱⁱ were employed in the core marine sector in 2008 (1.6% of Scottish employment). Of these, 31% were employed in the Fishing, Fish Farming or Fish Processing sectors.

Trends for 'core marine sector' (2000-2008)

Source: Data from Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI)(6)
Note: GVA and turnover at 2009 prices. Excludes Extraction of Crude
Petroleum and Natural Gas as data were not available for all the years.

GVA by industry sector

Although displaying data from only one year, GVA by industry sector 2007 offers a representative picture of the relative size of the core sector industries. 2007 data were used here because figures were not available for all sectors for 2008 due to confidentiality issues. The figure shows that the oil and gas sector contributes the majority of core sector GVA and, while individual sectors may exhibit year-on-year fluctuations, these are not sufficiently large to affect the overall core sector composition.

GVA by industry sector 2007

Source: Data from Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI) ⁽⁶⁾

GVA by local authority

The distribution of core secto­­r GVA among local authorities is influenced by the distribution of the oil and gas sector. Between 2000 and 2008, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire combined produced over 60% of the core sector GVAⁱⁱ of all local authority areas and employed around 50% of individuals working in the core marine sector. Glasgow, Highland and Shetland Islands combined contributed an additional 10% of GVA and over 10% of employment. In 2008, five local authorities produced approximately £3,000M of the core sector's £3,600M of GVA with Aberdeen City alone contributing £2,200M.

Industry sector share of core marine sector (2007)*

SIC code	Industry	GVA £m	% All marine GVA	% Core marine sector GVA	Turnover £m	Employment**	% All marine employment	% Core marine sector employment
45.24	Construction of water projects	3	0.0%	0.1%	5	0	<0.1%	<0.1%
71.22	Renting of water transport equipment	8	0.1%	0.2%	15	100	<0.2%	<0.3%
05.02	Fish farms	75	0.4%	1.8%	242	1,600	3.5%	4.3%
05.01	Fishing	111	0.6%	2.7%	247	3,000	6.6%	8.0%
15.20	Processing and preserving of fish and fish products	255	1.5%	6.3%	898	7,800	17.2%	20.7%
61.10 and 63.22	Sea and coastal water transport and supporting activities iii	432	2.5%	10.7%	838	4,800	10.6%	12.8%
35.1	Building and repairing of ships and boats	475	2.7%	11.7%	884	5,800	12.8%	15.4%
11.20	Service activities incidental to oil and gas extraction excluding surveying	2,699	15.5%	66.5%	5,819	14,300	31.6%	38.0%
	Total excluding extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas	4,056		100%	8,948	37,600		100%
11.10	Extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas	13,334	76.7%	N/A	20,671	7,700	17.0%	N/A
	Total Oil and Gas (11.10 and 11.20) 1	6,033	92.2%	N/A	26,489	22,000	48.6%	N/A
	Total core marine sector	17,390	100%		29,619	45,300	100%

Source: Data from Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI) ⁽⁶⁾
*All prices are for 2009, **Rounded to nearest 100. Due to rounding, totals for all columns may differ from the sum of the individual sectors.

Regional employment

The percentage of the population employed in the core marine sector varies significantly between local authorities. The upper map shows core sector employment as a percentage of total employment for each local authority area. In Shetland, the core marine sector provided 10.3% of overall employment in 2008. In Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Eilean Siar and Orkney, it accounts for 8.4%, 6.7%, 6.7% and 6.5% of total employment respectively.

Some areas have been more heavily reliant on core marine activities for overall employment than others. The lower map shows employment in fisheries ^iv activities as a percentage of total employment by Travel to Work Area ( TTWA) ^v, which provides a finer regional breakdown than the local authority level. It shows that Fraserburgh, Berwickshire and the Uists and Barra each have more than 10% of total employment coming from the fisheries sectors. While the proportion of the population employed in fishing activities is generally small in most areas, fishing provides an important source of employment for some local communities.

Core marine sector employment by local authority area (% of total employment, 2007)

Source: data from Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI) ^(6)(ii)

Conclusion

This analysis provides evidence that the seas generate a significant amount of economic output. It does not fully assess the value of economic activity or whether the seas are being used sustainably, nor does it assess the economic value of all activity. Answering these questions would require additional information on the environment or on activities that are currently difficult to quantify using official data. A more detailed assessment will only be possible if more data and information becomes available.

i 2008 data were not separately available for this sector.

ii Not including SIC 11.10: Extraction of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas.

iii These two sectors had to be combined as data were not available for them individually.

iv Employment in fisheries activities is defined as employment in the fishing ( SIC 05.01), fish farming ( SIC 05.02) and fish processing ( SIC 15.20) sectors.

v Travel to Work Areas are defined as areas where, of the resident economically active population, 75% work in that area and of those working in that area, 75% live in that area. Employment is measured based on people's workplace.

Direct employment in fishing, processing and aquaculture activities by travel to work areas (% of total employment, 2007)

Source: data from Annual Business Inquiry ( ABI) and Marine Scotland Sea Fisheries Statistics ⁽⁷⁾

Fraserburgh Harbour