Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1992

1 Licensing of fishing boats

(1) Section 4 of the [1967 c. 84.] Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 (which enables Ministers to prohibit fishing except under the authority of a licence) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (6) (which provides for licences to contain conditions)—

(a) after the words “sea fishing” there shall be inserted the words “(including conditions which do not relate directly to fishing)”, and

(b) after paragraph (b) there shall be inserted the words “or

(c) restricting the time which a vessel named in the licence may spend at sea (whether for the purpose of fishing or otherwise);”.

(3) After subsection (6A) there shall be inserted—

“(6B) A licence containing a condition restricting the time which a vessel may spend at sea may make provision as to the circumstances in which time is, or is not, to count as time spent at sea.

(6C) The Ministers shall by order make provision as to the principles on which the time which vessels may spend at sea is to be arrived at for the purposes of any condition included in a licence by virtue of subsection (6)(c) above.

(6D) Before considering what action to take under subsection (6C) above, the Ministers shall first give due consideration to a scheme of decommissioning in order to achieve a significant reduction in the capacity of the fishing fleet.”

(4) In subsection (7) (provision of statistical information) for the words “such statistical information” there shall be substituted the words “such information, in such form,”.

(5) In subsection (9)(b) (revocation and suspension of licences) at the end there shall be added the words “or to be appropriate in a case where there is a contravention of a prohibition imposed by an order under this section or a contravention of a condition of the licence”.