§ Baroness Carnegy of Lourasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the report of the efficiency scrutiny of the fisheries protection and enforcement effort of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland has been received.
The Earl of DundeeThe report was submitted early in May. Copies are being placed in the Library of both Houses today. I have agreed that copies should be circulated to the appropriate bodies with a view to starting the necessary consultations on the recommendations contained in the report.
The report recognises that fishery protection and enforcement are a necessary and important service and that the men who provide the service undertake a difficult and sometimes dangerous job. The report suggests that to give value for money the service must not just respond to new demands in flexible and imaginative ways but also continually question how the existing service can be improved.
The main recommendations for obtaining better value for money are: the creation of an effective deployment strategy linked more closely to objectives on service levels; the implementation of that strategy through an upgraded and more powerful operations room in the department;
subject to a review, a reduction in the use of offshore air patrols; radical changes to the crewing and patrol patterns of the fishery protection cruisers;
privatisation of the boat service currently undertaken by the Marine Detachment;
a reduction in the size of the Fleet Surveillance and Support Unit; and
the introduction of a new employment structure for the Marine Service to be controlled by the Marine Superintendent.
Implementation of the recommendations could lead to a reduction in annual costs of at least £1 million in total. The recommendations will be carefully considered in the light of the consultations about to be undertaken.