The Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) (Amendment) Order 2004

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) (Amendment) Order 2004 and shall come into force on 13th January 2004.

Amendment of the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) Order 2003

2.—(1) The Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) Order 2003(1) shall be amended in accordance with this article.

(2) At the end of the definition of “Annex XVII” in article 2(1) there shall be added the words “and as extended by Article 12(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 2287/2003(2)”.

(3) After the definition of “foreign fishing boat” in article 2(1) there shall be inserted the following definition:

““the late January period” means the period starting with the date the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) (Amendment) Order 2004 comes into force and ending with 31st January 2004 and “the early January period” means the period starting with 1st January 2004 and ending immediately before the coming into force of the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) (Amendment) Order 2004;”.

(4) Article 3(1) shall be amended by the insertion after “paragraph 1 (duration of controls) of Annex XVII” of “or during the late January period”.

(5) Article 3(2)(a) shall be amended by the insertion before the first appearance of “December 2003” of “each of” and after the first appearance of “December 2003” of “and the late January period”, and by the insertion in paragraph (ii) after “December 2003” of “(or, as the case may be, the late January period)”.

(6) Article 3(3)(a) shall be amended by the deletion of “and” at the end of the sub-paragraph.

(7) Article 3(3)(b) shall be amended by the insertion of “, and” at the end of the sub-paragraph.

(8) After article 3(3)(b) the following sub-paragraph shall be inserted:

“(c) subtracted from the basic number for the late January period, such number of days (if any) as it has been absent from port carrying that gear in the early January period”.

(9) After article 4(1) the following paragraph shall be inserted:

“(2) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under article 3(1) in respect of an activity relating to a boat in the late January period if the activity would not have been treated as an offence had December 2003 and January 2004 together been treated as a whole period equivalent to one of the two month periods specified in article 3(2)(b)”.

Consequential amendment

3.  Insofar as it extends to England and Wales, the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) Order 2000(3) shall be amended by the addition, at the end of the definition of “Annex XVII” in article 2(1), of the words, “and as extended by Article 12(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 2287/2003”.

Ben Bradshaw

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

6th January 2004

Alistair Darling

Secretary of State for Scotland

7th January 2004

Peter Hain

Secretary of State for Wales

6th January 2004

Paul Murphy

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

12th January 2004