Chapter 7 - Sustainable Development, Military Aid to the Civil Authorities and Conflict Prevention
                         
Table 7.6 Number of vessels boarded by the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron within British                      fishing limits and convictions arising from these boardings each financial year
This shows the activities of the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron operating within British fishery limits under contract to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Boardings carried out by vessels of the Scottish Executive Environment Directorate and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland are not included.
  1990/91   1997/98   2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08   2008/09  
Vessels boarded 1 803   1 715   1 709 1 747 1 371 1 335 1 309   1 102  
by sea areas:                        
   North Sea 825   743   601 502 360 343 367   306  
                         
   Faroes, Rockall and West of Scotland -   -   - - - - -   -  
                         
   Bristol Channel, Celtic Sea, English Channel,    Irish Sea and Western Approaches 978   972   1 108 1 245 1 011 992 942   796  
Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Convictions arising from Royal Navy boardings
 
Convictions arising from Royal Navy boardings are convictions of infringements detected by the Royal Navy Fishery Protection vessels in that year operating under contract to DEFRA. Actual figures may change retrospectively as some cases may not be heard in court for a year or more after the initial Royal Navy boarding.
 
In financial year 08/09, the Marine and Fisheries Agency introduced the Fisheries Administration Penalty (FAP). This has streamlined the penalty process, and has removed the necessity for most of the vessels that would previously have been sent to Court from actually having to attend Court, where they would probably have been convicted. Convictions in 2008/09 are based on the number of offences addressed by the Courts that resulted in a Court conviction, not the number of fishing vessels that attended Court. That is, a fishing vessel could be required to attend Court for one or more offences to be heard.
  1990/91   1997/98   2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08   2008/09 1
Convictions arising from boardings 49   44   28 30 44 49 58 || 20  
by nationality:                        
   Belgium 15   2   6 6 1 10 24 || 3  
   Denmark 1   -   - - - - - || -  
   Eire 1   -   4 4 5 10 6 || -  
                         
   Faeroes -   -   - - - - - || -  
   France 8   5   6 12 9 14 15 || 11  
   Germany -   -   - - 3 - - || -  
                         
   Holland 4   3   - 5 10 4 - || 2  
   Norway -   -   - - - - - || -  
   Russia -   -   - - - - - || -  
                         
   Portugal 5   -   - - - - - || -  
   Spain 11   1   4 - - - - || 3  
   United Kingdom 4   33   8 3 16 11 13 || 1  
Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
1. From 2008/09, this figure includes Fisheries Administration Penalties.