Scotland's Future Catching Policy: Selectivity Proposals Consultation 2026

3. Aims of the consultation

We have used the analysis of the first consultation to frame stakeholder engagement sessions and have undertaken targeted fleet level technical workshops to consider issues in more depth. Alongside this we have considered potential improvements to technical standards in order to address unwanted fish catch and bycatch of sensitive marine species. This work has focussed on those fleet segments that face issues with discards specific to the mixed nature of the fishery, and those that face issues with incidental bycatch or interaction with sensitive marine species. In Scotland the former primarily occurs in the mobile fleet segment and the latter in the static fleet segments.

The work that has been undertaken since the original consultation, particularly the stakeholder engagement and technical workshops, means the FCP has evolved. While the intention behind the FCP is still to deliver a more robust catching policy with the primary goal of reducing unwanted catch of fish species and sensitive marine species, there is now also a focus on simplification and the streamlining of current rules.

Feedback from the first FCP consultation and discussions with internal and external stakeholders has confirmed that existing legislation relating to technical conservation measures is diffuse, complicated, and can be difficult to find and understand. For example, there are hundreds of lines of legislation relating to technical fishing measures alone. As part of the development process for the FCP, we identified and collated all existing measures and considered whether they could be improved, removed or replaced with something better.

Following this process of collation and review, we are of the view that the FCP should not only look to deliver selectivity improvements where we can, but should act as the vehicle to consolidate the myriad technical measures within existing regulations into a more simplified, streamlined framework which will contain all of the technical regulations that fishers in Scotland need to abide by, with any selectivity improvements or best practise measures incorporated. Technical conservation measures are complicated and can be difficult for fishers to find and understand for compliance purposes due to various requirements set out over a number of different legislative documents. Taking forward consolidation of selectivity measures would aid transparency and streamlining of regulation. It would also give us the foundation, with flexibility, from which we can proactively pursue innovative selectivity improvements in Scottish waters. Streamlining the framework may also allow the opportunity to amend current statutory provisions which no longer have an application in Scottish waters. Consolidation of legislation and creation of a new framework can be complex and resource intensive and therefore is unlikely to be something that could be undertaken quickly. Subject to the outputs from this consultation, further work on scoping and timescales will be undertaken.

Questions for this section:

Q1: Do you agree that the current framework could benefit from being streamlined?