Sea Fisheries Act 1968
Sea Fisheries Act 1968
1968 CHAPTER 77
An Act to make further provision with respect to the subsidies payable to, and the levies which may be imposed on, the white fish and herring industries, to make further provision for the regulation of sea fishing, to amend the Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Act 1967 and the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967, to make provision with respect to fishing boats and gear lost or abandoned at sea, to remove anomalies in certain enactments relating to sea fisheries and the white fish and herring industries and to repeal other such enactments which are obsolete or unnecessary; and for connected purposes.
[18th December 1968]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
White fish and herring subsidies
1 Removal of special provisions for, and relaxation of restrictions on, white fish and herring subsidies.
(1) Section 2 of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1962 (special provisions with respect to white fish subsidy for larger vessels, including provision for progressive reduction of grants) shall cease to have effect.
(2) Section 4 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1957 and section 1(6) of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1962 (Which respectively limit the aggregate amount of grants by way of white fish and herring subsidy, subject to a power to increase the limit by order, and limit increases in the aggregate amount of those grants) shall also cease to have effect.
(3) The date before which applications for grants in pursuance of a scheme under section 5 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1953 (white fish subsidy) or section 3 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1957 (herring subsidy) must be received by the appropriate Minister shall be postponed from 1st January 1973 to 1st January 1974.
(4) In this section and section 2 below ‘the appropriate Minister’ means, in relation to England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and, in relation to Scotland the Secretary of state concerned with the sea fishing industry in Scotland.
2 Extension of scope of white fish and herring subsidies.
(1) The power of the appropriate Minister to make grants in pursuance of a scheme under section 5 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1953 (power to pay white fish subsidy with a view to promoting the landing in the United Kingdom of a continuous and plentiful supply of white fish) or section 3 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1957 (power to pay herring subsidy for a similar purpose) shall include power to make such grants with a view to promoting the landing in the United Kingdom of a continuous and plentiful supply of products of white fish or herring, as the case may be.
(2) For the purposes of those sections the trans-shipment of white fish and herring and their respective products in a port in the United Kingdom or within the exclusive fishery limits shall be treated as the landing of white fish and herring and their respective products in the United Kingdom.
(3) In this section ‘white fish’ has the same meaning as in the said section 5.
3 Offences in connection with white fish and herring subsidies.
(1) Any person who—
(a ) in furnishing any information in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by a scheme under section 5 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1953 (white fish subsidy) or section 3 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1957 (herring subsidy) makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular;
(b ) for the purpose of obtaining for himself or any other person any sum payable under such a scheme makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular;
(c ) in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by such a scheme produces a document which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly produces a document which is false in a material particular; or
(d ) wilfully refuses to supply any information, make any return or produce any document when required to do so by or under any such scheme,
shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding 400.
(2) Where an offence under this section which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or is attributable to any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Levy on the white fish and herring industries
4 Provisions with respect to levies which may be imposed on the white fish and herring industries.
(1) The general levy which may be imposed by the White Fish Authority under section 15(2) of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951 (power to impose on persons engaged in the white fish industry a general levy not exceeding one penny for every stone of white fish landed in Great Britain) may be imposed—
(a ) in respect of white fish landed in Great Britain, at a prescribed rate not exceeding 2 d. for each stone of white fish so landed; and
(b ) in respect of white fish products so landed, at a prescribed rate in respect of each stone of the products.
(2) The rate prescribed in relation to any white fish product for the purposes of subsection (1)(b ) above shall not exceed an amount which in the opinion of the Authority would be yielded by a levy of 2 d. on each stone of white fish required on average (whether alone or together with any other substance or article) to produce a stone of that product.
(3) In subsections (1) and (2) above ‘prescribed’ means prescribed by regulations made by the Authority under Part I of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951; and the Authority may prescribe different rates of general levy for fish of different descriptions and products of different descriptions.
(4) The Ministers may by order provide that for references to 2 d. in subsections (1) and (2) above there shall be substituted references to such larger sum as may be specified in the order.
(5) No order shall be made under subsection (4) above unless a draft thereof has been laid before, and been approved by, both Houses of Parliament.
(6) For the purposes of section 15(2) and (3) of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951 parts of white fish shall, notwithstanding anything in the definition of white fish in section 19 of that Act (interpretation of Part I of that Act), be treated as products of white fish and not as white fish.
(7) In the said section 15(2) and (3) references to persons engaged in the white fish industry shall be construed as including references to persons carrying on in Great Britain the business of buying the products of white fish by wholesale or of importing white fish or their products.
(8) In section 3(l ) of the Herring Industry Act 1935 (which, as applied by section 7(5) of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1948 , empowers the herring industry scheme to contain provisions for levies on persons engaged in the herring industry and oil purchasers of herring wholesale) for the words ‘purchasers of herring wholesale’ there shall be substituted the words ‘purchasers of herring or herring products wholesale and importers of herring or herring products’.
In the said paragraph (l ) as amended by this subsection ‘products’ has the same meaning as in Part I of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951.
(9) The Ministers may direct that a substance or article which is capable of being produced wholly or partly from either white fish or herring or both shall be treated for the purposes of this section, section 15(2) and (3) of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951 and section 7 of the White Fish and Herring Industries Act 1948 and any instrument made under or by virtue of any of those provisions as being wholly or partly produced from one of those descriptions of fish, and may also give directions with respect to the collection of sums payable by way of levy or contribution in respect of that substance or article in pursuance of any such instrument and the application of sums so paid in any manner specified in the directions, whether or not the application of those sums in that manner is authorised by the relevant provision or instrument.
(10) In this section ‘the Ministers’ has the same meaning as in Part I of the Sea Fish Industry Act 1951.
Regulation of sea fishing operations
5 Regulation of conduct of fishing operations.
(1) The Ministers may, for the purpose of giving effect to any convention for the time being in force between Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the government of any other country, by order make provision for regulating the conduct of, and safeguarding,...
To continue reading
Request your trial