EU Exit – Registration and Inspection of Fishing Vessels

June 2020

To: All Fishing Vessel Owners in Scotland

Dear Sir/Madam,

EU Exit – Registration and Inspection of Fishing Vessels

Action Required – Contact your Local Authority as soon as possible

If your catch is exported, either directly or indirectly, to any EU Member State at the end of the “Transition Period” set for 31^st December 2020, you must contact your Local Authority (LA) Environmental Health Department, to register as a food business with them, and make arrangements to have your vessel/s inspected by LA officers.

It should be recognised the responsibility to register with, and have your vessel inspected by the relevant LA, rests with you, and failure to do so may result in your catch being unable to be exported to EU member states at the end of the transition period.

This is a legal requirement. However, there is an exemption if your catch is intended either solely for your own consumption, or it does not exceed 25 kgs., and is for direct sale from the quayside.

The appropriate LA to contact is where your vessel has designated as its’ “home port” i.e. if your “home port” is Peterhead, the appropriate LA is Aberdeenshire. For ease of communication, details of contact e-mail addresses for all LA’s are included below.

Every reasonable effort will be made by LA officers to inspect your vessel without interrupting your fishing activities however, it is hoped that, with your co-operation, inspections can begin and be concluded as soon as possible.

By registering your vessel/s with the appropriate LA, you will allow your data to be used both by the LA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS), as part of records contained within the Scottish National Database (SND) which is managed centrally by FSS. The SND data protection Impact Assessment here, provides further information on how we protect the personal data that we collect from you.

Thank you for your assistance in this urgent matter.

Yours faithfully

Patrick Smyth, Food Standards Scotland

e: Patrick.Smyth@fss.scot t: 07824 342187

Local Authority Email Addresses

LA	Email Address
Aberdeen City	fishingvessels@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Aberdeenshire	fishingvessels@aberdeenshire.gov.uk
Angus	Envhealth@angus.gov.uk
Argyll & Bute	envhealth@argyll-bute.gov.uk
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar	eh@cne-siar.gov.uk
Dumfries & Galloway	environmentalhealth@dumgal.gov.uk
East Lothian	fishingvessels@eastlothian.gov.uk
Edinburgh	environmentalhealth@edinburgh.gov.uk
Fife	Food.advice@fife.gov.uk
Glasgow	LESfoodsafety@glasgow.gov.uk
Highland	fishing.vessel@highland.gov.uk
Inverclyde	public.protection@inverclyde.gov.uk
Moray	ehadmin@moray.gov.uk
North Ayrshire	environmentalhealth@north-ayrshire.gov.uk
Orkney	env.health@orkney.gov.uk
Scottish Borders	fishingvessels@scotborders.gov.uk
Shetland	fishingvessels@shetland.gov.uk
South Ayrshire	Environmental.health@south-ayrshire.gov.uk

A time for working together

Like most areas of business, the seafood sector in Scotland is in the midst of a very testing and trying time. Lost markets for a number of high-end species such as Scallop and prawns and significantly reduced demand for whitefish has led to a high number of vessels tying to the quayside. A limited number of vessels continue to fish for haddock for the domestic market with species such as monkfish, hake, ling and megrim shipped to foreign markets mainly France and Spain. These exports are traditional and form a significant element of the trade from fish processors in the north east of Scotland who send regular shipments on a daily basis.

That trade is now threatened after a section of the French industry applied pressure through political routes to the large retailers to ensure that only fish of French origin is purchased at auction. The genesis of their actions is unclear but understood to be linked to poor returns for a quantity of French fish. What is clear is the impact their actions will have for Scottish fishermen with exports of fish to France now reduced to very low levels. Their actions have a direct impact on Scottish markets with prices for a number of key species dropping sharply.

Scottish waters are fished quite heavily by around thirty large French vessels. These vessels land their catch into Scottish ports and truck the produce to France. Understandably, and in response to the protectionist measures applied in France, a number of Scottish fishermen are saying that this practice must now be brought to a halt.

In the hope of deescalating this whole affair we are calling on our French colleagues to step back from this agenda. Far more will be gained from working together than operating in isolation.

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