Brexit legal lock to give fishermen a bigger catch

The UK government will be legally obliged to negotiate a bigger share of the fish caught in British waters under amendments to the Fisheries Bill unveiled today.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has also announced £37 million of financial support for fishermen to ease the transition from exiting EU fisheries rules after Brexit, with £16m going to Scottish fishermen.

EU fishing fleets currently net a large share of their catch in British waters. Between 2012 and 2016, European vessels landed around 760,000 tonnes of fish worth £540 million per year, while UK vessels caught just 90,000 tonnes worth £110 million in neighbouring states’ waters.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “This change to the Fisheries Bill creates a watertight commitment to getting the best possible deal for Scotland’s fishermen and their communities and should give them a great deal of confidence about the future.

“The extra funding announced today will also help support our fishermen over the implementation period.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s Fisheries Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has written to Mr Gove to warn that failure to secure tariff and barrier-free trade with Europe would be “devastating” for fisheries products that “absolutely rely on frictionless passage across borders”.