Fisheries Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Brendan O'Hara and David Duguid

Tuesday 4th December 2018 Public Bill Committees

[Brendan O'Hara]

Q As the Member for Argyll and Bute, I take on board what you are saying. We are absolutely dependent on speed of access to market. What should we in this Committee be looking at over the next few weeks to ensure that vital shellfish market remains open and there is that speed of delivery from Loch Fyne to Madrid, for example? How do we ensure that that is as seamless as possible, and that we keep those vitally important markets?

Jerry Percy: There has to be a balance in the negotiations, permitting some level of access to our waters—although much less than currently—to ensure that we do not have those non-tariff barriers, and that the facilities, including on the French side, permit us to have that seamless transport and that there are no road blocks in the meantime.

[David Duguid (Banff and Buchan) (Con)]

Q On access to market versus access to waters, I think you mentioned that there would be some exchange of access for quota in any future arrangement. I presume you would agree that it is important that, as an independent coastal state, we have full control of that access so that we can use it as leverage. I hesitate to use the phrase “bargaining chip”, but when we go into future annual negotiations, that has to be the leverage that we have.

Jerry Percy: Absolutely. We should start with a clean sheet: “We are an independent coastal state. That’s that.” We have a clean sheet and nobody has the right of access. Then there will inevitably be negotiations and bargaining, and that balance is going to be extremely difficult, because Mr Macron, the Commission and others have already made clear that they want the status quo to be the basis of any further negotiation. The Government will have their work cut out to try to sort that out.

--- Later in debate ---

[Brendan O'Hara]

Q Do you have the capacity, the capability and the funding to meet the worst-case scenario that we have talked about?

Phil Haslam: That is where our judgment has been made, and that is where the bid has gone in. We are building that capability in order to be able to deploy it within the timescales, so by March.

[David Duguid]

Q Still on the subject of fisheries protection, you mentioned airborne surveillance earlier. One of the questions that fishermen in my constituency keep asking is: how does the eye in the sky seeing something wrong—somebody shooting their nets where they should not be shooting their nets, or whatever it is—turn into some kind of enforcement or some kind of actual protection, particularly in the future when there is no automatic equal access to our EEZ?

Phil Haslam: The intent of redeploying aerial surveillance on a more routine basis is to cover off any risk that we do not continue to receive data that we receive now through the vessel monitoring system and the like. We would need a mechanism to build a picture of what was happening in our waters. If it is not derived remotely from a location device on board a vessel, we will have to actively go out and build that picture.

What the aerial surveillance does in the first instance is build situational awareness of what is going on in the water. If, once you have that, you see in among it non-compliant behaviour, it can operate as a queueing platform. Either it can queue in a surface vessel to come and take subsequent action, or you can warrant the air crew so that they can issue lawful orders, whether it be, “You are required to recover your gear and exit our waters,” or whatever it is. That can be passed from the aircraft.

It is not an entire panacea. It cannot stop non-compliant activity, because it is clearly airborne, but it gives you, first and foremost, that picture. It has a very clear deterrent capability, and it can start a compliance regime by queueing.