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The Scottish Government does not have the powers to prosecute Marine and Fisheries offences, these powers lie with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) who prosecute on our behalf. This is a technical point.

The 1984 Act is one of many acts and orders which the Scottish Government uses to control marine and fisheries activities.

The 1984 Act mainly controls restrictions on fishing methods in vulnerable areas, much of which is now covered by orders made under the Marine Scotland Act 2010.

The legislation used depends on the offences committed and the penalties available.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) in lieu of reporting cases to the COPFS. Most cases where a penalty was deemed appropriate were dealt with in this way. Details of FPNs are published, link Reporting statistics from marine and fisheries compliance - gov.scot

Table detailing cases prosecuted under the 1984 Act.

The Scottish Government does not have the powers to prosecute Marine and Fisheries offences, these powers lie with the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) who prosecute on our behalf. This is a technical point.

The 1967 Act is a parent act under which orders were made, it is therefore more likely that any offence would be taken against a subordinate order rather than the act itself. Other acts have also superseded the 1967 Act, such as the Fisheries Act 2020, which is where licensing powers comes from. Any licence breaches are therefore pursued under the 2020 Act.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) in lieu of reporting cases to the COPFS. Most cases where a penalty was deemed appropriate were dealt with in this way. Details of FPNs are published, link Reporting statistics from marine and fisheries compliance - gov.scot

Table detailing cases prosecuted under the 1967 Act or subordinate orders.

There is an overall lack of data and evidence on women in fisheries for a number of reasons, and we agree that steps are needed to improve this. However, many of these gaps will need to be filled in collaboration with the industry and the wider research communities. Given other pressing priorities, further research into how women in fisheries were affected specifically by the COVID-19 pandemic has not been taken forward.

The Scottish Government recognises and values the very important role that many women play in Scotland’s fisheries sector.

Scotland's Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030 seeks to recognise the important role that all parts of society make to the fishing industry, and to promote involvement across all genders and equalities groups in a positive and inclusive way.

We want to work with the industry to shape the policy outcomes which contribute to better outcomes for women working in the sector.

The Women in Scottish Fisheries report provides a thorough overview of the importance of women across the industry and specifies that creating an attractive, safe and supportive environment for women, might direct us towards achieving a more equitable, and sustainable industry overall.

This remains a live topic that the Scottish Government is keen to explore in the future and we encourage industry to take the lead to bring about change wherever possible. We recognise that some actions may need to be initiated by government and we want to explore options for collaborative working and for actions to be developed in partnership with the fishing industry.

The Marine Directorate has several formal stakeholder engagement forums where there are opportunities to discuss the performance of the Marine Directorate with fishermen, their representatives and fisheries businesses. These include the Fisheries Management and Conservation Group (FMAC), and Regional Inshore Fisheries Management Groups RIFG. Additionally, there are many ad hoc meetings with stakeholders and regular engagement through direct correspondence with relevant officials where the Marine Directorate’s activities and performance can be discussed.

Marine Directorate Compliance Operations portfolio publish inspection data with the latest data being published shortly. (Reporting statistics from marine and fisheries compliance - gov.scot) We will continue to develop the data we publish.

It was not possible within the timeframe to produce data for 2021 to 2023. This is because of the way the data was previously processed and would require manual analysis of all reports to distil the correct data. As part of our business improvement strategy in 2024 we developed a new analytical process to improve efficiency by removing manual checks.

In 2024 there were 798 breaches of the catch composition rules. They were all UK vessels, 96% of which were Scottish registered.

This offence is particularly difficult to detect and gather sufficient evidence to prosecute. The Landing Obligation requires all fish which is subject to a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) are landed, this makes it difficult to comply with requirements to catch minimum quantities of target species, especially in mixed fisheries.

Under the Future Catching Policy (FCP), we will take firm measures to increase selectivity by introducing additional technical measures to reduce unwanted catch, working with stakeholders to explore and deliver solutions.

The Marine Fund Scotland (MFS) is focused on supporting projects that deliver outcomes relating to Scotland's Blue Economy Vision. This aims to support projects & investments that are innovative, entrepreneurial, productive and internationally competitive; resilient to climate change, contributing to climate change mitigation and adaption; to achieve marine sectors which are decarbonised, resource efficient and supporting Scotland's Net Zero commitments.

An example of the innovative circular economy approaches that this funding supports include projects such as Tiny Fish LTD, who won the Global Seafood Alliance 2024 Responsible Seafood Innovation Award. This project is finding unique markets for juvenile salmon that are removed from hatcheries prior to transfer of the best fish to sea pens. It received grant funding support via the MFS of over £118,000.

The Scottish Government has no access to information on quotas held by individual vessels, it is therefore not possible for the Scottish Government to provide any information on instances of EU or non-EU vessels landing fish in Scottish waters without sufficient quota coverage.

Individual state’s quota uptake is monitored, where fleets have fished beyond their quota limit, the excess is covered retrospectively through quota exchanges.

The Scottish Government has prioritised improving the collection and recycling of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear in our Marine Litter Strategy published in 2022 in order to protect our environment from plastic pollution and support the growth of our circular economy. Earlier research showed that end-of-life gear is in the most part stored or sent to landfill as it is extremely difficult to recycle due to its low-value, bulky, contaminated and degraded nature. There are very few recycling facilities currently, and we have no information on how much been recycled since 2021. It is therefore a focus to improve recycling opportunities for both the fishing and aquaculture sectors.