Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Exports, whether that is of fish or in other parts of our food industry, are a really important part of how we can continue to grow the economy in this country and support both our farmers and our fishermen. Exports dropped fairly significantly after Brexit, so one of the things we want to achieve with the SPS agreement is better export conditions to increase opportunities for both our farmers and our fishers.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that this exchange of questions demonstrates a certain absence of knowledge about how much damage was done by the terms in which Brexit was embedded, which has resulted, as she says, in a sharp drop in our exports? Would the Government find it useful to put into the public domain a little bit more of the factual basis for the sort of questions we have had this afternoon in the House?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Clearly, one reason we want to do the EU reset and get an SPS agreement and a better working relationship with the EU is to ensure that we have the best economic growth we can possibly get in this country. However, it is also important that we can work efficiently and effectively with our closest trading partner. The noble Lord has made some very good points about the kind of information that should be available, and I hope that the EU reset will start to reset some of the difficulties that he is referring to.