Use of force and arrests

The request was successful.

Dear Environment Agency,

Please provide the number of arrests (if any) made by Fisheries Enforcement Officers/Water Baliffs between 2015 and 2020 (inclusive), specifying the offences committed by suspects.

Additionally, please provide information as to how many times use of force (for example, drawing a baton or utilising handcuffs) has been recorded over the same period.

Yours faithfully,

Arthur Coulter

Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

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Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

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Good afternoon,

 

Before I can pass your request on, we will need more information.

 

Are you wanting information for a specific area with in England or for all
of England?

 

Kind Regards,

 

National Customer Contact Centre

Environment Agency

 

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show quoted sections

Dear Enquiries Unit,

I request this data for the entirety of England. I do not require the data to be broken down area-specifically.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Coulter

Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

Please note this is an auto reply message.

 

Thank you – the Environment Agency has received your email.

 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which is affecting staff and
resources within the Environment Agency, we may take longer than the
normal 10 working days we aim to reply by.

 

Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations state
that a public authority must respond to requests for information within 20
working days.

 

However due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting staff and resources
we may take longer than the 20 working days to reply. We will aim to
provide an answer as soon as we can.  

 

For information on what you can expect from us and our full service
commitment to you then please visit our website: 

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

If you have made a data request, you may wish to look at
[2]www.data.gov.uk to see if the data you have requested is available
online.
  

Usually we make no charge for providing information. In some cases we may
make a charge for licensed re-use of our data. Where this is the case, we
will notify you in advance.

 

If you have provided any personal information (also called personal data)
in your enquiry, the Environment Agency will follow all applicable UK and
EU data protection laws in how we treat it. We may use your information to
help you with your enquiry, if necessary. More details on your rights and
how we will process your personal information can be found in our Personal
Information Charter:

[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

Environmental Incident

 

If your email was to report an environmental incident i.e. pollution, fish
in distress, dumping of hazardous waste etc. then please call our
Freephone 24 hour Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.   

 

For more details about incident reporting please see our website:

[4]https://www.gov.uk/report-an-environment...

Kind Regards,

 

National Customer Contact Centre - Part of National Operations Services

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [5]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

Click an icon to keep in touch with us:-

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Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

Good Afternoon Mr Coulter,

If your enquiry concerns the entirety of England, please submit it to our National Requests team. I have enclosed their email address below. Please include any details that will help in responding to your request, including any historical periods of significance.

[email address]

Regards

Customer Service Advisor, Email Management Unit, NCCC
Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation & Customer

C Tel: 03708 506 506
T Web Site: www.gov.uk/environment-agency

show quoted sections

Sent request to Environment Agency again, using a new contact address.

National Requests, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

Dear Andrew

 

Thank you for your request for Fisheries Enforcement Data

 

We are treating your enquiry as an Information Request under the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004/Freedom of Information Act
2000.

 

Your request will be dealt with by our National Request Team under
reference NR209599

 

The Environment Agency covers England only.

 

For Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, please see the links below:

 

[1]http://www.sepa.org.uk/

 

[2]https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/northern-ire...

 

[3]http://www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk/

 

If you have provided any personal information (also called personal data)
in your enquiry, the Environment Agency will follow all applicable UK and
EU data protection laws in how we treat it. We may use your information to
help you with your enquiry, if necessary.

 

More details on your rights and how we will process your personal
information can be found in our Personal Information Charter:

 

[4]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

We aim to provide you with the requested information as soon as possible
and no later than 20 working days after the date of receipt of the
request.

 

In the meantime should you have any queries regarding this request please
contact us at: [5][Environment Agency request email]

 

Kind Regards

 

Eileen Roffe

National Request Team

National Customer Contact Centre

Environment Agency

 

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [6]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

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From: Arthur Coulter [mailto:[FOI #730992 email]]
Sent: 05 March 2021 17:24
To: National Requests <[Environment Agency request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Use of force and arrests

 

Dear Environment Agency,

 

Please provide the number of arrests (if any) made by Fisheries
Enforcement Officers/Water Baliffs between 2015 and 2020 (inclusive),
specifying the offences committed by suspects.

 

Additionally, please provide information as to how many times use of force
(for example, drawing a baton or utilising handcuffs) has been recorded
over the same period.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Arthur Coulter

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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show quoted sections

Dear Environment Agency,

Please can you confirm whether this request is in progress or not? I initially expected a response by 6 April, however, was required to resubmit the request to a different team. Even when taking this into consideration, I should have received a response by 14 April – in accordance with the requirement for you to respond promptly.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Coulter

National Requests, Environment Agency

Dear Mr Coulter,

Thank you for your email below.

Please be assured that we are looking into your enquiry but have encountered delays that mean we are not currently in a position to respond.

Please accept our apologies for this delay.

We will be in touch as soon as we are able.

Kind regards,

National Request Team
National Customer Contact Centre
Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation, Monitoring & Customer
Environment Agency
External: 03708 506 506

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting staff and resources we may take longer than the 20 working days to reply. We will aim to provide an answer as soon as we can.

show quoted sections

National Requests, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

Dear Coulter,

 

Enquiry regarding – Use of Force and Arrest Data

 

Reference: NR209599

 

Thank you for your enquiry which was received on March 5, 2021 and please
accept our apology for the delay in our response.

 

We respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and
Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We provide the number of arrests made by Fisheries Enforcement Officers
between 2015 - 2020 and specify the suspected offences at time of arrest.

We also provide the number of occasions that use of force has been
recorded over the same period.

 

Please refer to [1]Open Government Licence which explains the permitted
use of this information.

 

The table below shows the data for both arrests and use of force during
the requested period:

 

By EA use
financial arrests of
year force
2015-16 6 4
2016-17 12 4
2017-18 7 2
2018-19 7 6
2019-20 12 8
2020-21 0 0
TOTAL
2015-2020
INCLUSIVE 44 24

 

 

The table below shows suspected offences for those arrests during the
requested period:

 

Note: SAFFA = Salmon and Freshwater Fishery Act 1975

ARREST SUSPECTED
OFFENCE(S)
SAFFA Section
1 27 & Sec 35 
Theft Act 1968
Schedule 1
paragraph 2(1)

Police Act
2 1996 Section
89(2) 

SAFFA Section
35
SAFFA Section
31(2)
Theft Act 1968
Schedule 1,
paragraph 2(1)

Police Act
1996 Section
89(2)

SAFFA Section
3 31(2)
SAFFA 1975
Section 27
4 (net)
5 SAFFA 1975
Section 27
SAFFA 1975
6 Section 27
SAFFA - Sec 27
(1)(a) & Sec
7 35
8 SAFFA Section
27  
SAFFA Section
9 27
SAFFA, Water
Resources Act
1991- Schedule
10 25
SAFFA 1975,
11 Police Act,
Theft Act
SAFFA 1975 and
Salmon Act
1986 Sections
12 27 & 32
SAFFA 1975 &
Salmon Act
1986 -
Sections 27
13 and 32
SAFFA 1975 &
Salmon Act
14 1986 -
Sections 27
and 32
SAFFA 1975 -
15 Sec 1 (a) (v)
SAFFA 1975 -
16 Sec 1 (a) (v)
SAFFA 1975 and
17 Salmon Act
1986 - Sec 27,
1 & 2
SAFFA 1975 and
Salmon Act
1986 - Sec 27,
18 1 & 2
SAFFA 27A, 35,
Police Act
89(2),Regional
Byelaws 11A
&11B, national
byelaw 6 phase
19 1
20 SAFFA Section
(27)
SAFFA Section
21 27(1)(a)
SAFFA Section
22 (27)
23 SAFFA Section
27 & 35
SAFFA Section
24 (27)
SAFFA Sections
25 1 & 27 (net)
26 SAFFA Section
27(1)(a)
SAFFA Section
27 27 & 35
SAFFA 1975 27
& 35, National
Byelaws, Theft
Act 1985,
28 Police Act
29 SAFFA Section
(27)(A)
SAFFA Section
30 27 & 35
SAFFA Section
31 27 & 35
32 SAFFA Section
(27)(b)
Theft Act
1968, Section
33 1 - 7
Theft Act
1968, Section
34 1 - 7
Theft Act
35 1968, Section
1 - 7
SAFFA Section
36 27 & 35
SAFFA 27,
2(2)(a)
National
37 Byelaws
SAFFA and EA
National
38 Byelaw,
Sections 27 &
35(8)
SAFFA Section
27 & Water
Resources Act
1991 Section
39 6(2)(C)
SAFFA Section
27(1)(a) Theft
Act Schedule 1
40 paragraph 2(1)
41 SAFFA Section
27 (net)
SAFFA Section
42 27 (net)
SAFFA Section
43 (27)(b)
44 SAFFA Section
(27)(1)(a)

 

This above information is centrally held and is correct at the time of
request.

 

You will note there have been no arrests or use of force in 2020/21. This
is largely due to the coronavirus pandemic and since patrols restarted,
our safe systems of working have ensured social distancing to keep both
the public and our officers safe. 

 

Please get in touch if you have any further queries or contact us within
two months if you’d like us to review the information we have sent.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

National Request Team

National Customer Contact Centre

Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation, Monitoring &
Customer

Environment Agency

External:  03708 506 506

 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting staff and resources we may
take longer than the 20 working days to reply. We will aim to provide an
answer as soon as we can.

 

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Information in this message may be confidential and may be legally
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