For 2008-09 it is proposed that the Royal Navy Fisheries Protection Squadron will provide the Marine and Fisheries Agency with 700 patrol days. The precise number of patrol days for subsequent years will be subject to detailed operational requirements. It is proposed that there will be flexibility to increase or reduce the requirement by 50 days a year subject to notice being given by the Marine and Fisheries Agency in September the year before. The operational details of future tasking is not determined on an hourly basis. The Marine and Fisheries Agency agrees task profiling with the RN and MOD and at present is considering an option of operating on a 21-day patrol cycle for each vessel.
The maximum patrol days available during the period of the agreement will be 750 a year and the minimum will be 600.
The RN/MFA Agreement refers to patrol days dedicated to the task of fishery protection. This has been accounted for on a monthly basis as set out in the following table.
Month 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 January — 79 91 67 71 65 56 50 58 46 51 February — 96 91 64 74 89 82 82 79 65 77 March — 74 91 86 85 82 87 72 83 82 70 April 98 93 82 77 84 87 78 79 78 66 66 May 92 91 80 86 93 86 85 72 80 79 79 June 107 94 97 85 86 89 95 83 88 81 66 July 111 112 102 97 79 92 86 86 82 92 — August 113 102 73 74 78 76 86 80 89 80 — September 100 103 99 102 78 77 94 83 87 80 — October 98 92 88 80 82 85 69 63 67 73 — November 101 91 78 85 83 76 65 69 50 54 — December 61 54 63 61 58 49 46 45 41 42 —
The Marine and Fisheries Agency, the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence are currently considering the detailed provisions of the new agreement. I expect these discussions to be concluded in good time for the new arrangements to operate from 1 April 2008.