Chamber and committees

No discussions have taken place. It is for individual police forces to assess the suitability of potential recruits against a range of factors which includes skills, physical fitness and previous work experience.

Under the current system financial penalties are imposed on the skipper and/or owners of a fishing vessel for illegal fishing practices through the criminal system with sheriffs operating under maximum penalty guidelines. The Scottish Government has no direct influence on the level of penalty imposed. In seeking to improve on this single tiered system the Scottish Government recently held a consultation exercise on A System of Administrative Penalties for Fisheries Offences in Scotland. Following this exercise the Scottish Government are now finalising an SI to put before the Scottish Parliament in March which will bring into force a system of fixed financial penalties for minor fisheries offences by the end of April 2008.

There are numerous regulations that relate to the use of the English language on British vessels, and the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) complies with these regulations. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency Code of Safe Working Practice for Seamen (amended 2007) also stresses the importance of commonality of language in training or instruction.

All permanent staff serving on SFPA vessels are interviewed prior to appointment and the interview process ascertains that candidates have the requisite communication skills. In addition, the command language onboard SFPA vessels is English and it is a requirement of the SFPA Safety Management System for Commanding Officers to ensure that any seafarers joining their vessels have sufficient oral and written skills in that language to carry out their duties.

For personnel employed on the research vessels owned by the Fisheries Research Services, all potential officers and crew are interviewed by Marr Vessel Management Ltd (the vessel management contractors) during the recruitment process to check that they have an appropriate working level of English and this is an essential requirement for selection.

The power to escort fishing vessels to port and detain them there pending further investigation or court proceedings, is exercised by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) in only a few of all cases referred by them to the Procurator Fiscal each year. The procedure is only invoked when investigations cannot be concluded at sea, or to secure evidence when foreign nationals are suspected of having committed offences. Use of the power to detain a vessel in port does not automatically result in a report being sent to the Procurator Fiscal for possible prosecution. Conversely, most reports to the Procurator Fiscal do not emanate from a detention situation.

The number of vessels detained by the agency in each of the last five years broken down by Scottish, other UK, and other EU member states vessels is set out in table 1. The range of fines imposed, and the associated average in each year is also shown. Table 2 contains comparative figures based on all cases referred by the SFPA to the Procurator Fiscal in each of the last five years. The figures for 2007-08 were compiled as at 13 February 2008.

Table 1

Year	Scottish	Other UK	Other EU	Range of Fines	Average Fine
2007-08	0	1	1	-	-
2006-07	0	0	8	£100 - £17,000	£17,000
2005-06	0	1	6	£600 - £17,500	£5,100
2004-05	0	5	5	£500 - £6,000	£3,944
2003-04	0	0	2	£20,000 “ 25,000	£22,500

 

Table 2

Year	Scottish	Other UK	Other EU	Range of fines	Average Fine
2007-08	29	2	0	£100 - £2,500	£1,079
2006-07	43	6	8	£100 - £17,000	£3,254
2005-06	51	3	8	£600 - £22,500	£4,400
2004-05	108	6	8	£100 - £20,000	£3,450
2003-04	85	0	2	£250 “ £90,000	£4,905

 

The Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) is responsible for the recruitment, selection, training, employment and the determination of terms and conditions of employment of the officers and crew-members on the vessels operated by the SFPA.

In respect of Fisheries Research Service vessels, Marr Vessel Management Ltd (vessel management contractors) is currently responsible for the employment, recruitment, selection, training and determination of the conditions of employment of the marine officers and crew members.

Annual surveys for Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency vessels are harmonised with the time of their annual three-week refits which include a dry docking. These are carried out in ship repair yards with suitable facilities which are identified after an open tendering procurement process.

This information is not heldcentrally. Data on the previous occupations of police officers is retained by individualpolice forces.

Historic Scotland officials have had discussions with the Department ofCulture, Media and Sport and with the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales about the development of new legislation toprotect the marine historic environment, and further, about Scottish ministers’decision to legislate on this devolved matter in the Scottish Parliament.

To facilitate a widerdebate on future strategy in this area, Historic Scotland arranged a seminar attendedby 50 delegates from across the UK. Discussions on Scotland’smost important historic wreck sites have taken place between Historic Scotland andthe UK-wide Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Sites and officials have secured,with their heritage agency partners, a new UK-wide contract for archaeological servicesto inform designation and licensing decisions from 2008-11.

In 2007 the four PatrolVessels of the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency were operational for a totalof 1,135 Effective Patrol Days. An Effective Patrol Day is any 24 hour period duringwhich a vessel is available for operational deployment. The average number of PatrolVessels available for deployment on any one day was 3.11.

There are a numberof enforcement mechanisms in place to tackle illegal fishing activity includingreferral to court. The Scottish Government is implementing a system of administrativepenalties in April 2008 and also has in place a system of automatic licence suspensionwhere a vessels fishing entitlement can be suspended for periods of seven or 14days. There have been no recent discussions with ministers on the permanent removalof a vessels fishing entitlement.