HC Deb 22 February 1892 vol 1 cc873-5
MR. DUFF (Banffshire)

I beg to ask the Lord Advocate if the attention of the Secretary for Scotland has been called to the Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland for last year, wherein repeated reference is made to the systematic evasion of the law by beam trawlers, and to the total inadequacy of the sea police at present employed to protect the waters closed against beam trawling; and if it is the intention of the Government, in consequence of this official information, to station a Marine Police on the coast of Scotland sufficient to maintain law and order, at present subject to serious infringement by what the Report characterises as the illegal depredations of the trawlers?

MR. MUNRO FERGUSON (Leith, &c.)

had notice of the following question:— To ask the Lord Advocate whether the Admiralty has yet consented to place the ships in Scottish waters necessary to secure the protected areas from illegal depredation by trawlers?

* THE LORD ADVOCATE (Sir C. J. PEARSON, Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities)

I propose to include in my answer a reply to the question of the hon. Member for Leith Burghs. The Secretary for Scotland has had under his attention the Report of the Fishery Board, to which the hon. Member refers. Her Majesty's Government are well aware that the laws in relation to trawling are at present largely evaded. There are obvious difficulties in effectively patrolling 800 miles of seaboard, but the Admiralty have strengthened their force of gunboats off the Scotch coast and are making careful investigations as to the best means of dealing with this difficult question.

MR. DUFF

In the number of vessels appointed for the purpose will there be any special protection for the Moray Firth?

* SIR C. J. PEARSON

That is a matter of detail with which I am not acquainted. I must ask for notice of the question.

MR. H. T. ANSTRUTHER (St. Andrews, &c.)

Can the right hon. Gentleman answer a question which was formerly put to the late Lord Advocate and upon which he said he would make inquiry, whether the average speed of the steam trawlers is higher than that of any of the vessels employed in the Marine Police Service? Can the right hon. Gentleman say if that is the case, as, according to my information, it is?

* SIR C. J. PEARSON

I am sorry I am not able to give the hon. Member the information he desires at this moment, but I will make inquiry into the matter.

MR. MUNRO FERGUSON

Did I understand the right hon. Gentleman to say that the Admiralty force had been strengthened, or that it was proposed to strengthen it?

* SIR C. J. PEARSON

I believe it has already been strengthened.