Shellfish Aquaculture

Simon Fell Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con)]

It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon); I have never done so before and it has been on my bucket list for a while. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) on securing this important debate. I chair the all-party parliamentary group on shellfish aquaculture and he is its treasurer. He is definitely the Dastardly to my Muttley, which makes him the more intelligent one.

The Chamber has heard from Members from Devon, Cornwall, Yorkshire, Essex and Northern Ireland—and is now hearing from me, a Cumbrian. My home looks out on to Morecambe Bay, where hundreds of small fishers operate. There is a large oyster farm off Walney, and in Barrow, quite surprisingly, we have one of the largest producers and conglomerators of live bivalve molluscs in the UK.

The sector is struggling, but it does not need to. There are huge opportunities; if it is managed well and given the tools it needs for growth, it could be a great British success story. It offers an almost unlimited and sustainable source of protein for us and for export markets. It offers a boon to our coastal communities—many of which, as we know all too well, are struggling—and it could be a guarantor of marine biodiversity. But it is hamstrung and held back. The tools to unlock it are within our grasp, and I urge the Minister to enable us to grasp them.

I would like to focus on three areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Totnes has covered them all, but I have learned during my two and a bit years in this job that original thought does not get you anywhere in this place, so I will repeat them. The areas are live bivalve molluscs, highly protected marine areas and pacific oysters. If we can unlock those three, the sector will be flying.

I turn to live bivalve molluscs. We operate under the same water testing rules as the European Union, but many of our European friends clearly interpret them differently. The trade and co-operation agreement means that we are unable to export grade B live bivalve molluscs without their having undergone depuration. That holds back the sector tremendously—when I talk to them, businesses in my area say that it is what they are most concerned about.

Of course, we can build up our home-grown depuration facilities. In fact we do, and I am grateful to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for extending funding to some aquaculture businesses for that purpose. However, we really have to grip the core issue: the Food Standards Agency, which has taken an incredibly bureaucratic view of the testing regime. That is holding the sector back and has led to stagnation over the years. We have the same system and rules as elsewhere in Europe, but the UK interprets them the most strictly.

There is no evidence that our more restrictive system does any better in protecting public health. Given that measurements can change by the hour, the system of taking them monthly means that many fantastic local businesses are one bad measurement away from closure. That speaks to the really parlous state of the industry, and it needs to change. Our waters are not poor, but our system of measurement, and our ability and willingness to measure quickly, are poor.

We need to look at how our colleagues in Europe are interpreting exactly the same rules and to unashamedly copy them. Kingfisher Seafoods—the business in Barrow that I mentioned—supports about 100 family businesses in Morecambe Bay. The economic impact of failing to get this issue right will be devastating not just for that business, but for the 100 family fishermen, who have been operating for years.

The excellent Benyon review suggested that highly protected marine areas should not include commercial fishing. I strongly agree, but I do think that aquaculture businesses should be permitted to operate in them. Their inclusion in highly protected marine areas would aid biodiversity recovery as well as acting as an effective carbon sink. We should consider that closely; to my mind, it is a win-win.

The third point is about pacific oysters, which make up 95% of all UK-grown oysters. For some time they were classified as invasive but, as we have heard, they have become naturalised due to their prevalence. There is almost no chance of ridding our coastal waters of them and we would not want to. Our waters, of course, are linked to our European neighbours, who have correctly recognised pacific oysters as naturalised and started harvesting them. What is the result? As my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes said, France’s aquaculture sector produces 145,000 tonnes per year, compared with our 2,680 tonnes. The delta is enormous. By simply looking at this in a different way, we can see the scale of the growth on offer.

If DEFRA were to recognise Pacific oysters as naturalised across the UK, businesses such as the excellent Morecambe Bay Oysters on Walney in my constituency would be able to scale up. Others that are currently at risk of closure would be able to continue to operate and to leave the parlous state they find themselves in now. If we do not grasp this issue and change the language and terms that this sector operates under, we risk many of the most innovative businesses in the UK closing within the next few years. We have it in our gift to enable a viable and sustainable aquaculture sector, on which thousands of new jobs could rely and which would promote biodiversity and offer considerable trade opportunities.

Although I am too cheap to copy my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes and invite colleagues and the Chair to lunch, I would encourage them to take up his offer, because this is a story we should tell people about and that they need to learn about. It is a good news story waiting to happen. I hope the Minister will listen to the cross-party consensus on supporting this sector and help get things moving for it.

Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill

Simon Fell Excerpts

Friday 25th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con)]

I am very surprised to be called so early in this debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) on being selected in the ballot and on choosing such an important subject.

By banning hunting trophies, we can send a strong message to the rest of the world that the UK does not tolerate the killing of iconic species such as rhinos, lions and elephants by a very small minority for recreation alone. Like many others in this place, I have been inundated by emails and letters from constituents who care very deeply about this issue. I will read a section of an email from Danielle from Barrow, which sums up what many people have said:

“All animals have unique personalities, but to hunters, they’re merely target practice—things to kill, decapitate, and display on a wall. Wild animals just want to be left in peace, but trophy hunters —lacking empathy, compassion, and respect for these living, feeling beings—get a sick thrill out of taking their lives. They’re willing to pay thousands of pounds to travel the world just to kill. Their victims are often trapped in a fenced compound or private game reserve, or lured with bait from the safety of national park into the awaiting shooter’s path. Some who facilitate this blood sport track down animals for a fee. It isn’t uncommon for them to encounter sleeping animals, who may be shot at extremely close range…

The UK could deter hunters from killing animals abroad by banning imports of hunting trophies, thereby preventing people from bringing their sick souvenirs home.”

Danielle is just one of many who have reached out to me—and I am sure people across the House—on this issue.

Members have already mentioned the polling. In March this year, polling showed overwhelming support for the policy of banning hunting trophy-hunting imports. I think around 60% of the public agreed that the UK Government should bring a ban forward. Indeed, among Conservative-leaning voters, that was 92%. I am always wary about following polls because I think that we should listen to the arguments on both sides and make our own minds up, but it is clear that the public are ahead of us on this one. There is real merit to listening to their sensible and sage opinions.

Between 2004 and 2014, British hunters brought 2,500 legal hunting trophies into the UK, including body parts of some of the most endangered species such as elephants and rhinos. Despite wild lion populations being decimated to a mere 20,000 individuals, thousands of lions have been targeted and killed since the death of Cecil, which we all remember, in 2015. Similarly, what was a population of 20 million African elephants has been reduced to just 400,000, with only 50 big tusker elephants left on earth at all.

Trophy hunting directly contributes to the decline in threatened and endangered species populations while failing to provide the conservation benefits that the trophy hunting industry claims. To attain the most impressive trophy, hunters typically target animals with the most accentuated traits. That has a disproportionate impact on the genetic and social integrity of their family group and wider populations.

Contrary to the belief that funding from hunts directly supports conservation efforts for the target animal species, evidence from the US House Committee on Natural Resources found multiple examples of funds being diverted or completely dismissed from conservation purposes in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa and Namibia.

South Africa holds 366 large-scale captive breeding facilities where big cats are being bred and exploited for commercial purposes. The investigative organisation, FOUR PAWS, found that indigenous species such as lions, cheetahs and leopards, in addition to non-native species such as tigers and jaguars, are being kept in substandard conditions and used for touristic gain through abusive experiences such as cub petting and canned hunting.

Lions are the largest population of big cat species in the industry, with three times as many lions in captivity as there are wild in South Africa. Due to their tame nature, gained through hand rearing and becoming habituated predators, the release of captive-bred lions into the wild is impossible. As they reach two years of age, many lions are used for canned hunting; they are released into a small, fenced area only to be shot and killed for a trophy. The dead lions and their parts that are not sold as trophies often enter the traditional medicine market across Asia, where the animals are more valuable dead than alive. By allowing the UK to import hunting trophies, we are indirectly supporting that heinous industry.

As has been mentioned, every party in this place, I think, has a commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies. It has been included in numerous Queen’s Speeches and in the 2021 DEFRA action plan for animal welfare. It is time to deliver on that commitment.

It is my daughter’s birthday today. Peg turned seven years old—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!] Thank you; I am sure that she appreciates all your support. Fatherhood very much changes our view of the world—she is my first. I am sure that all of us who have children recognise the stage that they go through when, once they hit about three years old, they start to ask “Why?” about everything, relentlessly. As Peg was my first child, whenever she asked “Why?” I tried to answer the question. It makes you see the world very differently. I did not really think much about hunting issues, such as fox hunting or the wider animal welfare concerns that we are discussing. However, when trying to justify them to a three-year-old and say why the world operates in that way, it makes you think again. Frankly, I cannot justify this. I cannot see why we allow these barbaric practices to continue and why we allow trophies to be imported into our country.

Animals should not be managed to be hunted, with the excuse of them continuing to exist as the argument. We should sustain habitats, enable biodiversity, and create environments where they can thrive, rather than ones in which they are not effectively wild any more, unable to fend for themselves without humans or are in a waiting room for a hunter to bag an easy shot so they have something to go above the mantelpiece. The Bill is the right and moral thing for us to do. I am very glad to support my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley on this excellent Bill.

Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Fell Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Pow]

We have been clear about our work to crack down on pollution in rivers. We have just launched our targets, which have all the details, and our storm sewage overflows discharge plan consultation. I recommend that the hon. Lady looks at and puts her views in.

[Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con)]

Kingfisher Seafoods in my constituency is one of the largest producers of cockles and mussels in the UK. It has been awarded a grant by the Marine Management Organisation to move into depuration, but unfortunately, the equipment that they need to buy will not be available by the time the grant expires. May I urge the Minister to apply some of her good sense to the MMO to get it to work with Kingfisher on a solution to that?

[Victoria Prentis]

My hon. Friend is a great champion for his constituents, and particularly for that seafood company. We have discussed it before, and I undertake to look into how we can extend the time available for the application process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Fell Excerpts

Thursday 28th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Pow]

Yes, it is a beautiful part of the world. We have to remember that water issues are devolved, so water companies are working in their own ways, but it is absolutely right that they need to work together across our borders. We are at pains to make that clear. Indeed, there were measures in the Environment Bill to highlight the fact that partnership working is so important. All the measures in the Bill will make a significant difference to any of this pollution going into the river. I remind her that a fifth of the pollution is from sewage, but four fifths is from agricultural pollution and waste treatment works. We are also working on very strong measures on this issue, not only through the Environment Bill, but through the farming rules for water.

[Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con)]

I am grateful to the Minister and Secretary of State for meeting me and concerned colleagues earlier this week on this issue. Only a few days ago, we had a discharge into the Walney channel. For the avoidance of doubt, can the Minister please lay out the fact that the amendment we are putting forward to the Environment Bill will drive down discharges such as this and increase penalties and liabilities on water companies that are acting irresponsibly?

[Rebecca Pow]

I thank my hon. Friend for coming to the meeting earlier this week to explain what is a very complicated picture. It has to be tackled from so many angles, which is why I mentioned agriculture just now—it is not just one source. We have the measures in the Bill and the six pages of measures we added to improve reporting, monitoring, duties and governance to check on the actions that water companies are taking. Those are in the Bill, but this overarching new duty to direct water companies to progressively reduce sewage will make the real difference. It puts into law what we have already directed Ofwat, the regulator, to do.

Agricultural Transition Plan

Simon Fell Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con)]

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to visit Hobkin Ground farm in my constituency, which is actively pursuing regenerative farming and trying to reduce the carbon footprint of raising a cow from field to fork through measures such as new grasses. What assurances can my right hon. Friend give to farmers like Megan and Mark that the new environmental management scheme will help us to help them meet our stringent net zero targets?

[George Eustice]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We are looking at a number of different disciplines within regenerative farming, including methods such as mob grazing, the use of different types of leguminous nitrogen-fixing plant mix in grassland and reduced fertiliser use. If we manage grassland and soils correctly, they can be a really useful store of carbon and contribute to net zero.