Dr. Cecil Beamish:

In the finfish case the requirement has come in through the EIS directives and there has to be an EIS in all finfish cases. In shellfish cases, a pre-screening is done by the Department and its agencies, and a decision is taken as to whether an EIS is required. In most cases it is not and that shortens the process for shellfish. For finfish it is mandatory under EU law. There has to be an EIS and that takes longer. One of the other reasons there are different figures for those timelines is public and statutory consultation. Depending on what arises in those consultation exercises, there may need to be feedback loops, adjustments and so forth, and that can take longer.