EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Fishing Industry

Joy Morrissey Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

Port facilities will, indeed, be one of the areas that the new £100 million fund will address around the country; we want to build capacity there as our share of the catch grows. The Government have maintained all along that we were aiming for something closer to zonal attachment. As I made clear earlier, we took an important step towards that objective, with the EU giving up 25% of its catch in our waters as part of the wider agreement. Yes, we would have liked to have gone further, and after the first five and a half years, we will.

[Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) (Con) [V]]

Pulse trawling, which uses electrical signals to drive flatfish such as sole from the seabed into nets, is highly controversial and damaging to our marine environment. Many in Marlow and Beaconsfield have written to me about how we can protect our marine environment moving forward. Therefore, can my right hon. Friend confirm that, with the end of the transition period at the beginning of this month, we have seen the last of this practice in UK waters?

[George Eustice]

I can. We have the freedom to regulate through technical measures in our own waters, and we have banned pulse trawling.