Fishery Enforcement Officers

Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Secrertary of State for Scotland how many enforcement officers from his Department are permanently stationed in each Scottish fishing port; and where none are resident, how many landing days per annum are supervised by his officials.

Mr. Michael Forsyth
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland has 59 permanent staff based at 20 coastal offices. The normal deployment of these staff is shown in the table.---------------
|Port         |
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|Eyemouth     |
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|Pittenweem   |
---------------
|Arbroath     |
---------------
|Aberdeen     |
---------------
|Peterhead    |
---------------
|Fraserburgh  |
---------------
|Macduff      |
---------------
|Buckie       |
---------------
|Lossiemouth  |
---------------
|Wick         |
---------------
|Lerwick      |
---------------
|Scrabster    |
---------------
|Kinlochbervie|
---------------
|Lochinver    |
---------------
|Stornoway    |
---------------
|Ullapool     |
---------------
|Mallaig      |
---------------
|Oban         |
---------------
|Campbeltown  |
---------------
|Ayr          |
---------------
|Total        |
---------------
No records are maintained of the frequency of inspections at other ports, but they are visited regularly having regard to the level of fishing activity in each area.

Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what checks are made by his officials to see that fish listed as caught in a specified area were actually caught there.

Mr. Michael Forsyth
Log books are examined each time a fishing vessel lands a catch or is boarded at sea.

Confirmation of the reported areas of fishing activity is sought by comparing the log book entries with surveillance data provided by fishery protection vessels and aircraft.