FOI/202600513782 · FOI/EIR · not held
Enforcement of sea fisheries regulations on commercial fishing vessels: EIR release
Information requested
Thank you for your response. We are of course disappointed about your decision to refuse our request, also in light of the positive responses we received from all other fisheries authorities we approached with similar requests (MMO, Welsh Government, DAERA and the IFCAs). Moreover, your refusal notice surprised us because we are aware that Open Seas received a detailed response from your office (data attached) to a similar request on 12 September 2025, which indicates that Marine Directorate does hold relevant enforcement data.
We are now considering our next steps, but in the first instance I wanted to confirm that your refusal is in large part based on difficulties in mapping your existing records onto our specific requests?
If so, could you alternatively please share with us your records related to enforcement of sea fisheries regulations on commercial fishing vessels (i.e. available details of any breaches that resulted in formal enforcement) in the format that you hold them in? This would allow us to then identify and extract the information that is relevant for our purposes, map it onto our request and aggregate the data as appropriate ourselves.
I also reiterate that we are only interested in data you collect routinely, and do not seek details on “minor” suspected breaches that did not result in formal enforcement (i.e. that resulted in no more than a verbal rebrief or similar). For any data you’re able to provide, please could you indicate:
the overall number of inspections on commercial fishing vessels Marine Directorate has conducted at sea or in port for each of the years 2022 to 2025 (ideally by vessel flag, where available, or confirming numbers on UK and non-UK vessels), and if your records relate only to vessel-inspections (at sea or in port) or also include breaches detected through other means (such as remote electronic monitoring).
If you could indicate which entries in your records relate to which vessel (if necessary through an anonymised ID per vessel rather than PLN or vessel name), that would help us avoid doublecounting of entries relating to the same vessel. We recognise you may need to redact some entries, but - also in line with the level of information received from other fisheries authorities - we seek concrete vessel details at least for those offences that resulted in a prosecution.
Response
Our response to your previous request (202600504923) relates to an issue that exists extracting the data from our systems. The data that was extracted for your request was missing a number of entries and so did not provide accurate enough information to answer your questions. We have undertaken some further work to complete the datasets as far as possible.
I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. The ‘coastal infringement data’ spreadsheet contains records related to infringements detected on land, for example, by officers inspecting vessels in port, as well as infringements detected following the analysis of electronic data submitted by fishing vessels under statutory obligations such as logbook data.
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 Marine Protection Vessel (MPV) 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 isrequired 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 for the same vessel on the same date is marked as having been referred for further investigation, the outcome of each has been provided.
Following further investigation, where the Marine Directorate obtains evidence, to the criminal standard, of contravention of fisheries law it may report the case to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for consideration of prosecution, or alternative appropriate action as it sees fit. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) are civil fines which Marine Directorate are able to offer rather than pursuing a formal prosecution.
Further information about the Marine Directorate’s use of Fixed Penalty Notices can be found at: Marine compliance: fixed penalty notices - gov.scot. An explanation of offence types can be found at: Marine and fisheries compliance: list of fixed penalty notices - gov.scot. These provide an indication of the offence that closest matches the identified infringement and the wording may not completely match the details of the actual infringement detected as there are not specific codes which relate to every possible offence.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(5)(b) (course of justice) of the EIRs applies to some of the information as some cases are either subject to active investigations by the Marine Directorate, are live cases with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service or are still within the permitted period to accept an FPN, which if disclosed could prejudice the enforcement or appropriate administration of law, which includes the prevention, investigation or detection of a crime, or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in release as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in not impacting on the course of justice where there are current legal proceedings underway or likely to take place in the future, and ability of the accused to receive a fair trial.
Further to your previous request (ref: 202600504923), the answers to your questions 2b and 3b are:
2b) The total number of commercial sea fishing trips that occurred in waters under the Marine Directorate’s authority for each of the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 within and beyond the 6NM limit:
Year Number of voyages 2022 55545 2023 56470 2024 53964 2025 53199
3b) The total number of fishing vessels active in waters under the Marine Directorate’s authority for each of the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 within and beyond the 6NM limit:
Year Number of vessels 2022 1917 2023 1861 2024 1808 2025 1824
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold all of the information you have requested. Therefore, we are refusing some of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), as the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested because the above data is not linked to geopositional data related to the 6nm limit so we are unable to identify which of the number of commercial sea fishing trips, or which of the number of active fishing vessels were within or beyond the 6nm limit.
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about fishing trips and active vessels within or beyond the 6nm limit, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
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
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 10(5)(b) (course of justice) of the EIRs applies to some of the information as some cases are either subject to active investigations by the Marine Directorate, are live cases with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service or are still within the permitted period to accept an FPN, which if disclosed could prejudice the enforcement or appropriate administration of law, which includes the prevention, investigation or detection of a crime, or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. Therefore, we are refusing some of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), as the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.