UK Offence Report

The Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) Order 2003 (revoked)

UK Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 1535 — creates 8 criminal offences.

8offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
10 June 2003
In force from
7 July 2003
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries
Made under
Fisheries Act 1981

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

This Order provides for the enforcement in England and Wales of the provisions of Annex XVII (“the Annex”) to Council Regulation (EC) No. 2341/2002 (OJ No. L356, 31.12.2002, p. 12) fixing for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks the fishing opportunities in Community waters for 2003 as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 671/2003 (OJ No. L97, 15.4.2003, p. 11) and amplified by Commission Decision 2003/185/EC (OJ No. L71, 15.3.2003, p. 28). It revokes and replaces the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/229). It applies certain amendments to the Annex such as a change in the definition of a day absent from port (paragraph 3), increased number of days for vessels carrying certain fishing gear (paragraph 6(e)), more flexibility in the number of fishing gears that a vessel may simultaneously carry (paragraph 7(b)), provision that certain days should not be counted as days absent from port (paragraphs 5(b), 5(c), and 13), and changes to the rules on the transfer of days from one vessel to another (paragraph 10(b) and 10(c)). The Order contains provisions relating to the calculation of the number of days on which a vessel may be absent from port for the purposes of the Annex (article 2(2)(c) and 3(2)-(8)) and the transfer of days from one period to another (article 5) and from one vessel to another (article 6). It also differs from the previous Order by making provisions for transfer by one vessel to another following sinking of, or severe damage to, the donor vessel (article 6(6) and (7)). The Order creates offences in respect of breaches, by a person in charge of a relevant British fishing boat (as defined in the Order), of the provisions of paragraphs 6(a) (absence from port in excess of number of permitted days), 7 (use of single type of gear), 8 (use of gear in different areas) and 9 (use of gears in given periods) of the Annex (article 3(1)), as qualified by a defence for unwitting recipients of excess days (article 3(9)). An offence is not committed where a boat would not have exceeded its permitted days under the Annex if the management periods were one month, rather than two months in length (article 4). The Order also creates offences in respect of breaches of other provisions of the Annex (articles 8, 9 and 10) relating to landing cod without advance notice (paragraph 15) or at an unauthorised location (paragraph 16), mixing of cod and other species on board (paragraph 19) or transportation of cod on land without an accompanying landing declaration (paragraph 22). It also imposes additional requirements relating to logbooks (article 11). Failure to comply with those requirements is an offence, as is the making of a false statement by any person in a notification under article 6(2) (article 6(5)). The amendment of the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) 2000 (S.I. 2000/51) is brought up to date, insofar as it extends to England and Wales, in pursuance of paragraph 14 of the Annex (article 7). The Order provides that a person guilty of an offence under it other than an offence under article 18(1) is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £50,000 and on conviction on indictment to a fine. Further fines up to and including the value of any fish caught in committing the offence are permitted and the court may also order the seizure of fish caught or equipment used in, or in activities leading to, the commission of the offence (article 12). The Order also provides for the recovery of fines imposed, or treated as imposed, by a magistrates' court in England or Wales (article 13). For the purposes of enforcing provisions of the Annex the Order confers on British sea-fishery officers the powers to enter premises, to go on board fishing boats, to stop and search vehicles transporting fish, to examine fish, to require the production of documents, to search for and seize documents, to take a boat to the nearest convenient port and to seize fish and fishing gear (articles 14, 15 and 16). Protection of such officers from liability is set out in article 17, and impeding them is an offence under article 18, with a fine of up to the statutory maximum on summary conviction and a fine on conviction on indictment. Articles 19 and 20 deal with corporate and equivalent offences and admissibility of documents in evidence.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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