The Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (England) Order 2014

Title, commencement and application E+W

1.—(1) This Order—

(a) may be cited as the Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (England) Order 2014;

(b) comes into force on 17th February 2014; and

(c) applies in relation to England.

(2) This Order does not apply in relation to the introduction of any live fish by a person who has been—

(a) issued with a permit under Council Regulation (EC) No. 708/2007(1) concerning use of alien and locally absent species in aquaculture, or

(b) served with a notice under regulation 7(2)(b) or (3)(b) (notices permitting movement) of the Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture (England and Wales) Regulations 2011(2).

[F1 (3) This Order does not apply to the keeping or release of live fish in inland waters]

Textual Amendments

F1 Art. 1(3) inserted (19.1.2014) by The Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (England) (Amendment) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3342), arts. 1(1)(b), 2(2)

[F2 Interpretation E+W

1A.   In this Order—

“freshwater fish” means any fish living in, or able to live in, fresh water;

“inland waters” means any water of a kind specified in section 221 of the Water Resources Act 1991(2) except that it does not include—

(a)

the River Tweed, or

(b)

garden ponds less than 0.4 hectares in area, which are not fished, have no links to other waters and are located within the curtilage of a residential property]

Textual Amendments

F2 Art. 1A inserted (19.1.2014) by The Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (England) (Amendment) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3342), arts. 1(1)(b), 2(3)

Prohibition of keeping or release of specified fish or eggs E+W

2.— [F3 (1) No person may, except under the authority of a licence granted by the Secretary of State, keep or release any live freshwater fish, or the live eggs of any freshwater fish, which—

(a) belongs to a taxonomic order specified in the first column of the table in Part 1 of the Schedule; and

(b) is not native to England and Wales]

(2) The requirement for a licence in paragraph (1) does not apply in relation to any species of non-native fish that is specified in the third column of the table in Part 2 of the Schedule and belongs to a taxonomic order referred to in paragraph (1).

Textual Amendments

F3 Art. 2(1) substituted (19.1.2014) by The Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (England) (Amendment) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3342), arts. 1(1)(b), 2(4)

Review E+W

3.—(1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

(a) carry out a review of regulation 2;

(b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report; and

(c) publish the report.

(2) The report must in particular—

(a) set out the objectives intended to be achieved by the regulatory scheme established by regulation 2;

(b) assess the extent to which those objective are achieved; and

(c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved with a system that imposes less regulation.

(3) The first report under this regulation must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which this Order comes into force.

(4) Reports under this regulation are afterwards to be published at intervals not exceeding five years.

Revocations E+W

4.  The following are revoked—

(a) the Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) Order 1998(3);

(b) the Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (Amendment) (England) Order 2003(4); and

(c) regulation 29 of the Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture (England and Wales) Regulations 2011(5).

George Eustice

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs