Question reference: S5W-28081
- Asked by: Peter Chapman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 25 March 2020
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Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 April 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the monthly average sales income has been for fishermen in each of the last three years.
Answer
Marine Scotland’s Sea Fisheries Statistics 2018, published in September 2019, holds the most recent statistics on the annual value of fish and shellfish landings as well as the number of fishers employed on Scottish registered fishing vessels. These data can be used to calculate the monthly average landing income per fisher as shown in the following table.
Table 1 shows the monthly average landing income for Scottish registered fishing vessels landing anywhere (i.e. Scotland, or elsewhere) for the three most recent years with published data.
Table 1 : Value of landings, number of fishers, and monthly landings per fisher; Scottish fishing vessels landing anywhere, 2016 to 2018 | |||
Year | (A) Total value of landings, £ | (B) Number of fishers employed | (C) Monthly average landing income per fisher |
2016 | 556,688,000 | 4,823 | £9,619 |
2017 | 559,339,000 | 4,799 | £9,713 |
2018 | 573,594,000 | 4,860 | £9,835 |
Average sales income from fish landings for Scottish fishers is not easily available nor an accurate predictor of the need for financial support to targeted sectors of the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those businesses identified, by the Scottish Government, as being in need under the Covid-19 fishing industry support announced on 25 March earn substantially less than the average income presented in Table 1 - which is driven upwards primarily by very large levels of landing income by the Scottish pelagic fleet. Landing income is also not the same as money in the pocket, as a large proportion goes towards business costs.
In particular, landing income is different from fisher earnings, and can be seen as similar to total sales or turnover of businesses rather than profits and earnings. These averages likely hide very large differences between fishing vessels and between different sectors of the fleet targeting different species.
Unfortunately to get an estimate of the annual income for those vessels included under the support announced on 25 March would require the release of unpublished administrative data.
Further, the criteria attached to the industry support results in the average payment under the package being more refined than simply the average income of vessels under 12m.