The Fisheries Committee's statutory function is to provide the government, and anyone generating or intending to generate hydro-electric power (including wave and tidal) in Scotland, with advice on the effects of hydro-electric schemes on fish. This can include giving advice or making recommendations on how damage to fisheries or stocks of fish might be prevented or minimized.
The Committee is required to examine all proposals for new hydro-electric schemes of more than one megawatt. It can make formal recommendations in relation to those proposals and may provide advice to generators or the government in relation to any proposed or existing scheme whatever its size.
At the request of Scottish Ministers, the Committee's remit includes advising on the effects of the cooling-water systems of thermal generating stations.
The Committee was first constituted in 1943 under the Act which established the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board. The statutory provisions were consolidated in the Electricity (Scotland) Act 1979 and, in 1986, were extended to cover other persons intending to establish or extend a hydro-electric scheme. The functions of the Committee are continued under the Electricity Act 1989.
Please click on this link for a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Fisheries Committee and SEPA.