The Navy Lark
July 20, 2017All quiet on the consultation front. Which is as you would expect, really, because this is not a government embarking on a frenzy of domestic legislation on which it needs to consult, but holding its fire ready for the transposition and/or abolition of EU law after Brexit.
Except…
…well, there are still more than 40 open consultations listed on gov.uk. There are equality and other impact assessments around the HS2 proposals, open access restrictions proposed on different Nature England sites, odds and ends of changes to the way statistics are compiled and…
This. Proposed cessation of the Ministry of Defence’s military aid to civil authorities I wondered what it might be about. Surely the MoD weren’t going to stop helping out in times of disaster; fear, fire, foe, flood?
No. It’s an odd thing. It seems to be a proposal to stop telling us about something we’re not much interested in, but not to stop doing the thing itself.
This is an annual publication that provides information on the number of vessels boarded by the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron (RN FPS) within British fishery limits, and the number of court convictions and financial administration penalties (FAPs) issued as a result of the boardings.
We are proposing to cease production of this publication
The consultation closes on 14th August and it’s only a one page document and I honestly recommend you read it in full, because, well, I just don’t get it. Under “reasons for the proposed change” it says
The number of vessels boarded by the RN FPS has fallen from 1335 in 2006/07 to 460 in 2015/16, a decrease of 66% over the decade. The number of convictions and administrative penalties has fallen from 53 in 2006/07 to 4 in 2015/16, a decrease of 92% over the decade.
The number of web-hits for the publication page has fallen from 535 in 2015/16 to 343 in 2016/17, a decrease of 36%.
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