Partners clamp down on illegal shellfish operations in Highland
20th November 2016
A multi-agency enforcement operation took place in the Lochaber area of the Highlands of Scotland on Wednesday 16 November 2016.
The operation, led by Highland Council's Environmental Health Service, included participation by a number of partner agencies, including HMRC, Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Police Scotland, Borders Agency and Marine Scotland Compliance.
The purpose of the operation was focussed on the illegality arising from and associated with the gathering, holding, transportation and placing on the market of shellfish, in particular winkles and cockles.
Investigations arising from the operations are continuing and in the course of the operation the Environmental Health Service took enforcement action to stop one food business placing shellfish onto the market. This action also involved a significant quantity of shellfish being removed from the food chain.
Graeme Corner, Highland Council's Senior Environmental Health Officer said: "We are trying to stop illegal harvesting of shellfish and the onward movement into the food chain. It is important to note that shellfish placed on the market out with the legitimate route can have significant detriment to the consumers’ health.
Furthermore, as shellfish harvested from Scottish waters are distributed throughout the world, any allegation of ill health caused by consumption of Scottish shellfish is very likely to have an adverse impact on the reputation of all shellfish food businesses, not just those who have no regard to food safety by flouting the law.
It is for these reasons that we have embraced a multi-agency approach to investigate activities of this type."
Gangmasters Licensing Authority Head of Operations Ian Waterfield said: "Partnership initiatives such as this one are key to our work and a crucial took in protecting not only the health of the public but also the safety of the workers involved in gathering the shellfish.
“By law, anyone who uses workers to gather shellfish should be licensed by the GLA and subject to the rigorous checks that come with it. We were therefore happy to assist the other partners to check that both our licensing standards and legislation were adhered to."
Related Businesses
Related Articles
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
