The Sea Fishing (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) Order (Northern Ireland) 2018

Admissibility of documents in evidence

20.—(1) In any proceedings for an offence under this Order or an equivalent provision, any—

(a) fishing logbook referred to in Article 14, or fishing logbook data sent under Article 15, of the Control Regulation;

(b) transhipment declaration referred to in Article 21, or transhipment declaration data sent under Article 22, of the Control Regulation;

(c) landing declaration referred to in Article 23, or landing declaration data sent under Article 24, of the Control Regulation;

(d) sales note or other document referred to in Article 62, or sales note data sent under Article 63, of the Control Regulation;

(e) take-over declaration referred to in Article 66, or take-over declaration data sent under Article 67, of the Control Regulation;

(f) transport document referred to in Article 68 of the Control Regulation; or

(g) document containing required information received by a fisheries monitoring centre established under Article 9(7) of the Control Regulation,

is to be received in evidence without being produced or sworn to by any witness and is, unless the contrary is shown, conclusive evidence as to the matters stated therein.

(2) In paragraph 1(g), “required information” means the following information as communicated via a satellite-based vessel monitoring system operated under Article 9(1) of the Control Regulation-

(a) the identification of a fishing vessel;

(b) its course and speed;

(c) its most recent geographical position expressed in degrees and minutes of longitude and latitude; and

(d) the date and time of the fixing of that position.

(3) Terms used in this article that are also used in the Control Regulation have the meaning they bear in that Regulation.