Fisheries Bill [Lords]

Emma Hardy Excerpts

Report stage & 3rd reading & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 13th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)]

I have had a fair bit of correspondence with the Minister’s Department and I wonder if she will look again at funding for the enforcement vessel. The reply I had from her states was that no funding is available for the enforcement vessel, but surely if she wants to support her hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Sally-Ann Hart) in taking back control of our waters, we must ensure that that is enforced.

[Victoria Prentis]

Enforcement is very important and I will look out for the hon. Lady’s correspondence and ensure she gets a full reply. In our view we have sufficient vessels to control our waters. We cannot reduce risk levels to zero. The size of our EEZ, the potential number of EU and third-country vessels that fish in our waters, and the potential lack of electronic data, mean that this is not feasible. However, we are confident that sufficient capacity is in place to prevent illegal fishing. We take this matter extremely seriously and I would be delighted to work further with her on that.

--- Later in debate ---

I would like to speak in more detail about amendment 1, which will help bring investment back to seaside towns and ports. In recent years, coastal communities have faced declining wages and job opportunities. The statistic that I have just quoted is really important, which is that for every one job at sea, eight to 10 jobs are created on land. Labour’s jobs in coastal communities amendment takes this statistic and makes it into policy. Our amendment would bring much needed investment and job opportunities to areas that have struggled under the common fisheries policy and 10 years of austerity.

[Emma Hardy]

I thank my hon. Friend for her excellent speech and say that, like me, she probably doesn’t recall 1988 that well. At one time Hull was one of the world-leading areas for fishing ports and industry, so does she agree that Labour’s amendment could bring some much needed jobs to areas such as Hull?

[Stephanie Peacock]

I absolutely agree. My hon. Friend makes an important point. I know that she is a hard-working campaigner for the fishing industry that benefits her community in Hull. That is why we believe that landing seafood caught in British waters in British ports will help to level up our coastal community. It will support jobs not just on boats, but in landing, processing and onward transportation.

With the sustainability objective, there is still time to seize the chance offered by amendment 2 to put in place fisheries legislation that begins to reverse biodiversity decline. In the Conservative election manifesto, voters were promised

“a legal commitment to fish sustainably”.

By the Government’s own admission, we will not be able to achieve the 2020 target for the good environmental status for many years

“unless there are further improvements to fisheries management measures.”