Fishing Vessel Owners: Fishing Vessel Registration and Inspection

Local fishing vessel owners need to register as ‘food businesses’, and have their vessel inspected by Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar to enable catch to be exported, either directly or indirectly, to Europe.

Owners of Outer Hebrides registered vessels are urged to contact Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar’s Environmental Health team to register their vessels and make arrangements for their vessel to be inspected. This is a legal requirement for those vessels who intend to export their catch, either directly or indirectly, to any EU Member State.

Exemptions apply if your catch is intended either for personal consumption, or it does not exceed 25kg and is for direct sale from the quayside. Vessel owners are responsible for this registration process, and failure to do so may mean that their catches cannot be exported to EU member states at the end of the transition period.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has provided a list of all Scottish Registered Fishing Vessels (Opens in a new window or downloads a file) on its website. The list provides these in alphabetical order with an indication of their inspection status.

A list of all the vessels registered and inspected by Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar is also available below.

Inspections

Inspections can only be carried out at quayside and shouldn’t normally take more than 30-40 minutes. Officers will be inspecting the vessels using a checklist based on the Food Standards Scotland Code of Practice Guidance (Opens in a new window or downloads a file).