UK Offence Report

The Solent European Marine Site (Prohibition of Method of Dredging) Order 2004

UK Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 2696 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
19 October 2004
In force from
21 October 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 prohibits the deployment of dredges (as defined in article 2(1)) in the Solent European Marine Site (article 3) which is specified in the Schedule. The areas to be protected from dredging enclose a combination of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas established under Council Directives 92/43/EEC and 79/409/EEC respectively. The carriage of such dredges within the Solent European Marine Site is also prohibited unless all parts of the dredge are completely inboard, secured and stowed (article 4). The Order comes into force on 21st October 2004. If any boat contravenes any restriction under this Order, the master, owner and charterer is 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 dredge or order the dredge’s forfeiture (section 11(2)–(3) of the 1967 Act). Additionally the Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea fishery officers for the purposes of enforcing this Order. These powers may be exercised in relation to any fishing boat within relevant British fishery limits, and in relation to a relevant British fishing boat wherever it may be (article 5). Powers to board vessels and to search for, examine and seize fishing gear for the enforcement of this Order are conferred on an officer of a local fisheries committee by virtue of section 17 of the 1967 Act.

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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