EIR/202600513697 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency information: EIR release
Information requested
Many thanks for the information shared in response to our information request last year.
Please could I additionally request the remaining data through to the end of 2025?
Please could I also confirm how I should interpret "marine" and "coastal" infringement records?
Finally, please could I check that these records represent the outcomes of all types of monitoring and enforcement activity (i.e. include any checks undertaken through REM data or similar, as well as vessel inspections)?
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the Purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Request for copies of records and information regarding marine and coastal infringements
You asked for “the remaining data through to the end of 2025” following our response to your request 202500482139 where we released extracts of the Scottish Government Marine Directorate’s infringements database for the period 1 January 2022 to 26 August 2025.
I enclose a copy of the information you requested.
The answers to your questions are that ‘coastal’ infringement records relate to infringements detected on land, for example, by officers inspecting vessels in port or during inspections of premises such as markets etc. They also include infringements detected following the analysis of electronic data submitted by fishing vessels under statutory obligations such as logbook data. ‘Marine’ infringement records relate to infringements detected at sea by Marine Directorate’s protection vessels. Further information on these vessels can be found at: Marine and fisheries compliance: fleet and aircraft - gov.scot
Please note that there is some duplication in the data which can occur for a number of reasons. The most common is where one office or protection vessel records a suspected infringement and another office or MPV records a follow up action, for example, where an MPV detects a net infringement, and the master is required to present a new net at a coastal office for inspection.
If an infringement of fisheries legislation is found during an inspection, one of the following actions can be taken:
Verbal Rebrief (advice) given Advisory Letter issued Warning Letter issued Further Investigation undertaken
A combination of the above actions may be recorded multiple times on the same date. This may be either where actions have been taken against different vessels, or where several suspected infringements have been recorded against the same vessel. In the latter case the resulting action is recorded against each infringement, for example, one advisory letter may be issued covering several infringements but is recorded against each one. This can, again, cause some duplication in the data making it appear as if more letters have been issued than have been sent out. Where more than one suspected infringement on the same date is marked as having been referred for further investigation, these have been manually separated into individual rows so the outcome of each can be provided.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.