Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) in Scotland’s fishing fleet: EIR release

Information requested

1) “How much Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) in Scotland’s fishing fleet has been rolled out in the period September 2021 to the present day?

2) In total how much Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) has been rolled out in Scotland’s fishing fleet?

3) What has been the cost to the Scottish Government of rolling out Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM)?”

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I wrote to you to seek further particulars about the scope of your request (in relation to questions 2 and 3 above) and as yet have not received a response. Therefore, we have interpreted your request as follows:

1. How much Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) in Scotland’s fishing fleet has been rolled out in the period September 2021 to the present day?
53 Scottish registered fishing vessels had REM installations between 01/09/2021-11/08/2022.

2. How much of Scotland's fishing fleet currently carries REM?
As at 11/08/2022, 104 Scottish registered vessels carried REM.

3. Between 01/01/2020 and the present day, what has been the cost to the Scottish Government of rolling out Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM)?
Between 01/01/2020 and 11/08/2022, £590K (excluding VAT) was spent on REM devices and installations.

The Fully Documented Fisheries Unit (3 FTE Fishery Officers, 1 x B2, 2 x B1) analyse REM data alongside other Fishery Officer duties.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.