UK Offence Report

The Scallop Fishing Order 2004

UK Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 12 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created
0recorded in force
1revoked
Made
8 January 2004
In force from
1 February 2004
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries
Made under
Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967

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 places restrictions on the use and carriage of scallop dredges, and applies to British fishing boats within relevant British fishery limits (as defined in article 2). It prohibits the use or carriage of scallop dredges (as defined in article 2(1)) which do not conform to certain technical specifications (articles 3 and 4). However, the restrictions in article 3 do not apply to a dredge which falls within the definition of a scallop dredge, but which does not retain any scallops on board and either is in a shellfish production area (article 2(2)(a)) or on a voyage on which it only fishes for and retains seed mussel for relaying into a shellfish production area (article 2(2)(b)). The Order also contains restrictions on the number of dredges which may be towed within 6 miles of the baselines within relevant British fishery limits (article 5) and, within ICES division VII d, bans the carriage of scallops which measure less than 110 millimetres (articles 6 and 7). If a boat breaches the restrictions in articles 3, 4 or 5, the master, owner and charterer are each guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding £5,000 on summary conviction and on conviction on indictment to a fine (sections 3(5) and 11(1)(b) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967). The court may also impose an additional fine not exceeding the value of the fish caught with the net and order the net’s forfeiture (section 11(2)-(3) of the 1967 Act). If a boat breaches the restrictions in article 6, the master, owner and charterer is guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment to a fine (sections 1(8) and 11(1)(c) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967). The court may also impose an additional fine not exceeding the value of the fish in respect of which the offence was committed, or alternatively order the forfeiture of those fish (section 11(2)-(5) of the 1967 Act). Additionally the Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea fishery officers for the purposes of enforcing this Order or any equivalent Order implementing similar prohibitions in relation to any categories of fishing boat (article 8) and revokes a previous order in so far as it applies within relevant British fishery limits (article 9).

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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