7 S.I.
2012/827: Reported for requiring elucidation
Sea Fishing (Licences and Notices)
(England) Regulations 2012
(S.I. 2012/827)
7.1 The Committee draws the special attention
of both Houses to these Regulations on the ground that they require
elucidation in one respect.
7.2 The Regulations are made under section 4B of
the Sea Fish Conservation Act 1967 and deal with licences for
fishing boats under sections 4 and 4A of that Act. Regulation
5 makes provision for the time at which licences and related notices
take effect. Regulation 3(3)(b) allows notices to be communicated
by "publishing the notice on a website, the address of which
is indicated on the licence to which the notice relates";
in those cases, regulation 5(c) provides for the notice to have
effect 24 hours after publication. Offence provisions in relation
to licenses and notices are set out directly in the 1967 Act.
The Committee asked the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs why no provision was made for periods during which
the website might be inaccessible. In a memorandum printed at
Appendix 7, the Department describes in detail the practical arrangements
for website publication and alternative communications by the
Marine Management Organisation ('MMO') (a body established under
the under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009) in this context
and explains persuasively why no provision for inaccessibility
was thought desirable. The Committee is concerned that a gap
in protection of those affected remains, for it is apparent that
elimination of the possibility of enforcement of offences committed
in unavoidable ignorance might well depend on the conscientiousness
of MMO. However it recognises that section 4B of the 1967 Act
does not appear to empower regulations to provide for any due
diligence defence and, in the light of the Department's memorandum,
it now appreciates that a suitably circumscribed defence of that
nature might well have been the only suitable means of filling
the gap. It therefore accepts the Department's explanation, and
accordingly reports regulation 5(c) as requiring the elucidation
provided by the Department's memorandum as amplified in this Report.
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