Contravention of The Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025

the instrument as a whole of The Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025

Status not determined
Strict liability
Set by another provision
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 1(7)-(8) and
11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds: a person
Conduct: breaching the provision
Fault element: Strict liability
Burden of proof: Not determined

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine: Not determined
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 1(7)-(8) and 11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status: Status not determined
Made: 28 August 2025
In force from: 16 October 2025
Extent: Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

This Order prohibits specified methods of fishing within specified areas. Article 3 and schedule 1 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in the Braemar Pockmarks Special Area of Conservation. Article 4 and schedule 2 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas in the Central Fladen Marine Protected Area. Article 5 and schedule 3 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in the Darwin Mounds Special Area of Conservation. Article 6 and schedule 4 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone in East of Gannet and Montrose Fields Marine Protected Area. Article 7 and schedule 5 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in six areas of East Rockall Bank Special Area of Conservation. Article 8 and schedule 6 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone in the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt Marine Protected Area. Article 9 and schedule 7 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in three areas of the Scottish zone in the Firth of Forth Banks Complex Marine Protected Area. Article 10 and schedule 8 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in three areas of the Scottish zone in the Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope Marine Protected Area. Article 11 and schedule 9 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone in the North-east Faro-Shetland Channel Marine Protected Area. Article 12 and schedule 10 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in an area of the Scottish zone in the North West Rockall Bank Special Area of Conservation. Article 13 and schedule 11 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone in the Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain Marine Protected Area. Article 14 and schedule 12 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in an area of the Scottish zone in the Pobie Bank Reef Special Area of Conservation. Article 15 and schedule 13 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in the Scanner Pockmarks Special Area of Conservation. Article 16 and schedule 14 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in five areas of the Scottish zone in Solan Bank Reef Special Area of Conservation. An exception to the prohibition applies in relation to the Solan Bank Reef Fifth Protected Area to allow sea fishing with a demersal trawl or a demersal seine net within a specified period. Article 17 and schedule 15 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in three areas of the Scottish zone in the Stanton Banks Special Area of Conservation. Article 18 and schedule 16 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone in The Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount Marine Protected Area. Article 19 and schedule 17 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area. Article 20(1) and schedule 18 prohibit fishing for sea fish with a beam trawl or dredge throughout the whole of the West Shetland Shelf MPA. Additionally, article 20(2) and schedule 18 prohibit fishing for sea fish with a bottom trawl or demersal seine net within two smaller areas in that MPA. Article 21 and schedule 19 prohibit fishing for sea fish with specified fishing gear in two areas of the Scottish zone within the Wyville Thomson Ridge Special Area of Conservation. Article 22 regulates the storage of fishing gear on fishing vessels within each of the protected areas. It is an offence under section 5(1) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 for any person to contravene a prohibition imposed by this Order. The maximum penalties are specified by section 11 of that Act. On summary conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding £50,000. On conviction on indictment, the maximum penalty is an unlimited fine.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.70.

Basis: the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence: 0.70 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2025