Commentary on Sections Wildlife offences: penalties Section 17 – Information sharing report
111.Section 17(1) places an obligation on the Scottish Ministers to publish and lay before the Scottish Parliament, within 5 years of this section coming into force, a report setting out an assessment of the steps that have been taken to ensure information sharing in relation to certain persons, and the steps the Scottish Ministers are taking to further progress such information sharing.
112.The persons that are to be the subject of the report are specified in section 17(3) as being persons issued with a fixed penalty notice in respect of an offence listed in section 17(4), or persons who have been convicted of an offence listed in section 17(4) and whose sentence includes a fine, a period of imprisonment, a disqualification order, or a community payback order.
113.Section 17(2) allows the Scottish Ministers to include such other information in the report as they consider appropriate.
114.Section 17(5) allows for the Scottish Ministers to consult such persons as they consider appropriate when preparing the report.