Consultation on requirement for vessel monitoring systems for under 12 metre fishing vessels

Overview

This consultation seeks to obtain views on the proposal for all fishing vessels under 12 metres in length licensed to fish and operating in Northern Ireland waters (with Northern Ireland vessels also covered outside of Northern Ireland waters) to have installed and operational an Inshore Vessel Monitoring Systems (I-VMS).

Why your views matter

Your views are important to DAERA.

We recognise the importance of engaging with stakeholders to ensure that fisheries policy is fit for purpose and are keen to hear from any persons interested in or affected by the proposal for fishing vessels under 12 meters to have an inshore vessel monitoring system (I-VMS) and indeed any members of the public.

What happens next

A summary of responses to this consultation will be published on the DAERA website

An annex to the consultation summary will list all organisations that responded, but will not include personal names, addresses or other contact details.

DAERA may publish the content of your response to this consultation to make it available to the public without your personal name and private contact details (e.g. home address, email address, etc).

If you answer on ‘Yes’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, you are asked to state clearly what information you would like to be kept as confidential and explain your reasons for confidentiality.

The reason for this is that information in responses to this consultation may be subject to release to the public or other parties in accordance with the legislation on access to information  (this is primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the General Data Protection Regulation  and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)).

DAERA has obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular recipients or to the public in certain circumstances. In view of this, your explanation for requesting confidentiality for all or part of your response would help DAERA balance these obligations for disclosure against any obligation of confidentiality.

If DAERA receives a request for the information that you have provided in your response to this consultation, DAERA will take full account of your reasons for requesting confidentiality of your response, but cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances.

If you answer ‘No’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, DAERA will be able to release the content of your response to the public, but DAERA will not  make your personal name and private contact details publicly available