Fishing Industry: Government Support
House of Commons · Westminster Hall · 1 Jul 2026 · 31 speeches · Official Report
[Relevant document: Seventh Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of Session 2024-2026, Resetting the relationship with fishing communities, HC 680.]
I beg to move, That this House has considered Government support for the fishing industry. It is always a pleasure to serve under you, Sir Alec. The rich fishing and coastal heritage of my constituency of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is second to none. My constituency is home to Europe’s largest whitefish port at Peterhead and Europe’s largest shellfish port at Fraserburgh-the largest is not Bridlington, as some people claim. My constituency’s corner of the north-east of Scotland is a key part of our nation’s fishing industry, and a significant part of the industry in these islands. That is why I was so keen to invite the Minister’s colleague-the former Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle)-to Scotland and to extend that invitation to my constituency. I hope that you, too, can accept that invitation when your diary allows, so you can then see this historic industry with your own eyes and meet the experts who nurture and maintain it against myriad challenges during these volatile geopolitical and economic times. I hope, too, that such a visit will be valuable in understanding why there is such disappointment and anger at how the fishing and coastal growth fund has been allocated in Scotland, which has less than 8% of it-£28 million out of a £360 million pot. Let us put things into perspective. The Scottish fishing sector represents over 60% of the UK’s total fishing capacity,...
Order. I gently remind the hon. Member, first, that we do not use the word “you”-I am not responsible for any of this. You speak through the Chair so that we can maintain calmness in the Chamber. Secondly, you are not allowed to use aids and props. You may describe the aid or prop, but please do not hold it up as if it will be recognised.
Thank you for that clarification, Chair. I have six pages of almost entirely redacted correspondence, so it is clear that somebody does not want us to see these things. In subsequent correspondence between the Scotland Office and the chair of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, it is admitted that this was a Treasury decision in 2024, not a Scottish Government decision. It is admitted that the allocation in no way reflects the size and strength of the industry in the north-east of Scotland, but the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland says she is too busy to meet the chair of the SWFPA, Jimmy Buchan-too busy. Perhaps in the forthcoming reshuffle she might find herself less busy. Adding insult to injury, allocating this paltry pocket money to Scotland over 12 years means that Scotland will receive only around £2.3 million per year in additional investment. To say that that falls short of what is needed is to put it mildly. If the UK Government had engaged fully with the industry in Scotland, as well as with the Scottish Government, they might have been made more aware of that. The Minister here today now has the opportunity to put this right. Another expert in the industry, Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, has also called the allocation unfair and indefensible. He adds: “Scottish waters are bearing the brunt of the 12-year EU fisheries access extension”, which was negotiated by the UK Government, and that “the use of the...
I completely agree that the funding settlement is inadequate and unfair for Scottish fishermen, but will the hon. Member confirm that the SNP policy is to rejoin the EU and then rejoin the hated common fisheries policy?
I have no brief to speak on behalf of the Scottish Government. Of course, our policy is very clear: we want to rejoin the European Union, because Brexit has been a disaster for the Scottish economy. However, I do not believe that we want any of the worst effects of the common fisheries policy. Finally, can the Minister support the re-establishment of the Scottish seafood industry action group and actively investigate doing so?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I especially thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for his opening of the debate. It is a real pleasure to work alongside him in addressing the issues of visas, quotas and many other things that he referred to. He and I have had separate meetings with the Immigration Minister, the hon. Member for Dover and Deal (Mike Tapp). The Minister today, the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), may want to engage with him on the visa issue. I think we had quite positive meetings with the Immigration Minister about a way forward, and I thank him for that. I will speak specifically on the Northern Ireland fishing sector. In 2024, it generated some £50 million in landing values, employed 445 people full time, and supported some 6,500 jobs ashore across Northern Ireland’s rural and coastal communities. The impact of fishing in Northern Ireland is massive, as it is in the constituency of the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East and across all Scotland. Fishing is woven into the very fabric of Northern Ireland’s identity-culturally rich, diverse and shaped by a maritime heritage that stretches back to the 14th century, when Northern Irish vessels supplied fish throughout Ireland, across the British Isles and into European markets. The importance of the long-term survival of the Northern Ireland fishing industry cannot be overstated. Fishing is at the heart of the...
Well, with an introduction like that, I call Lara Bird.
The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is a tough act to follow, as always. Thank you, Sir Alec, for chairing this debate; I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing it. Many Members across the House have spoken out in support of the fishing industry, particularly in Scotland-I know that because I followed the issue closely before I came to this House-but I must pay tribute specifically to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East for being such a consistent champion and for ensuring that the difficulties and challenges that fishermen and women face in Scotland, in his constituency and mine, continue to be raised in this place. My coastal constituency of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry has a proud fishing history, as do the constituencies of many Members in this Chamber. In its heyday, it was one of Scotland’s busiest fishing ports, with 40 boats landing white fish and shellfish in the late 19th century. Overfishing led to fishing quotas, however, and from the 1970s that led to a steep decline. That has had an impact on the town of Arbroath: not just on the fishermen and women and their families, but deeper into the economy, the businesses and the surrounding industries that rely on fishermen and women. That is something that we are still really feeling today in Arbroath: the last boat to catch haddock or cod, which was once the town’s prize catch, stopped sailing in 2013, so most of the...
I asked the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) whether the SNP policy is still to rejoin the EU and rejoin the hated common fisheries policy. He failed to answer that question. Could the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Lara Bird) try to answer it?
As the hon. Member is undoubtedly aware, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is not able to speak on behalf of the Scottish Government, and neither am I. But the hon. Member will be aware that our policy is very much to rejoin the EU, and that rejoining the EU will mean support for the fishing industry that is currently unavailable because of the Conservatives’ policy of pulling out of it. One thing my constituents have raised to me is that they face challenges with exports and support for their industry that would not be felt if it were not for the damaging consequences of Brexit. I am sure that it comes as no surprise to the hon. Member to hear me say that. I will continue by explaining the recent experience of one of the businesses in my constituency. The Bellrock is famous for its fish, not just in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry but across Scotland: folk come from all over to experience its fish suppers. The fish it uses used to be caught just off the coast of Arbroath, but the owner of the Bellrock told me recently that the price of the fresh fish they buy has increased by over 30%. That is mainly due to higher fuel costs-another matter that the current UK Labour Government are unwilling and unable to address and which is having detrimental impacts on the fishing industry. It is also due to fewer boats going out, as it is no longer commercially viable to do so, largely because there are no incentives or support for smaller members of the...
I commend the hon. Lady, who has brought a matter to my mind and probably to the mind of the Minister and others. We have just seen a record price for a cod supper-I think the paper this week said that it was £11.51. I go back further than most Members, but I can remember when £11.50 would have bought a fish supper for four people or more. It really does put pressure on the hospitality sector.
I thank the hon. Member for that point, which highlights how deeply the issue is being felt across many different industries, not just among those who are going out and catching the fish. As my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East mentioned in his opening remarks, the pitiful and arguably insulting allocation of funds from the UK Government to support fishermen and women in Scotland not only fails to reflect their contribution to the fishing sector, but fails to hold up other businesses and industries that rely on it. That is just an example-the tax on jobs is another-of the destructive Labour policies that mean that businesses in my constituency are really struggling. A historic, integral fishing industry on an island nation cannot be allowed to struggle and decline while the UK Government sit back and do nothing. From my experience of speaking to my constituents, it is not about a lack of will or demand for fish in Scotland. As my hon. Friend outlined, the situation we are in is purely about the lack of engagement from the UK Government to experience what is happening to the fishing industry in Scotland and provide adequate policies to support it.
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesman.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) on securing the debate and making a strong case on behalf of his region in Scotland. He focused on the fishing and coastal growth fund, which is £360 million over 12 years, as he understands, so it is spread over a very long period. When one looks at it across the whole UK on an annual basis, it is spread very thinly. Coastal communities in particular have been left behind following Brexit, as the hon. Member mentioned. In Cornwall, for example, we were entitled to objective 1 aid from the EU. Following Brexit, we were promised equivalent funds from the Treasury to make up for the loss of EU aid; it was equivalent to £100 million a year coming into Cornwall, which is one of the most deprived regions not just in the UK, but in Europe. It is now 2026 and there are no funds at all: over the years, that replacement has simply not happened. A paltry amount is available through the fisheries and coastal growth fund, but it is being spread around the country and, as the hon. Member rightly says, it is a relatively small fund. It is welcome, of course-one should not decry the Government for making the offer-and I entirely understand that the purpose of the fund is to modernise the fishing industry and the seafood sector, build resilience and support coastal communities. However, I hope that the Minister will ensure that the funds go to...
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Briefly, as I do not want to test Sir Alec’s patience.
I will be brief. My local fishermen in North Cornwall have been waiting three years for the inshore fisheries and conservation authority and DEFRA to implement a byelaw to restrict vessels above 12 metres in the inshore Cornish waters within 6 nautical miles. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is urgently needed and would do exactly what he has been calling for by restricting those larger vessels and helping to manage the stocks that he is talking about?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. Had we secured control between the 6-mile and 12-mile limits, as was promised at the time but has not been delivered, one could see circumstances in which local IFCAs, local management and indeed the Government would agree that there would be an opportunity to achieve that within the 6-mile limit. It is telling that, after the flotillas up the Thames and certain campaigners using the fishing industry as the poster boy of the Brexit campaign, on occasions like this debate, when they should come along to explain what happened as a result of the promises they made, they are conspicuous by their absence. They are not here to answer for themselves and for the claims they made at the time. Where are they? They should be here to explain why the industry is still struggling post-Brexit.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing this important debate. Fishing is not just an industry; to many it is a way of life, passed from one generation to the next. It is why so many people in our fishing communities looked to the Government’s UK-EU summit in May 2025 with disbelief. At that summit, the Government agreed to grant the European Union full access to UK fishing waters until 2038-a 12-year extension of the existing arrangements. The Government said that it would be in return for British participation in the Security Action for Europe defence fund. Despite repeated questions, however, it remains unclear exactly when or indeed if they will achieve that. That is because the talks collapsed when the EU demanded billions of pounds from Britain as a condition for joining. You might think, Sir Alec, that the Government would have thought about that possibility before signing away important fishing rights. They seem to have got nothing in return. Can the Minister therefore confirm whether the Government will renegotiate with the EU and return the fishing rights to our fishermen and women, now it is clear that the talks have failed? Or was our fishing industry just used as a bargaining chip in pursuit of the Prime Minister’s broader political objective? This House deserves answers, and so do the communities whose futures depend on those decisions. I have no...
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Alec. I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for the timely opportunity to take part in my first fisheries debate and to set out the priority I place on this industry. I congratulate him on the timing of this debate; I assume that he is not an England football fan. In addition, I welcome the two new Members-the hon. Members for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Lara Bird) and for Aberdeen South (Douglas Lumsden)-and I congratulate them on contributing so successfully this afternoon. Having proudly grown up in a coastal community and now representing a constituency that has a small fishing port, as well as having a father who regularly took me sea fishing, I am delighted to have been appointed as the new fisheries Minister. I am excited to have the chance to support the fishing industry and help it to adapt to the opportunities and challenges ahead. The hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East made a number of specific points, and I assure him early in my speech that I am very happy to write to him on the specifics. As ever, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made some helpful points on immigration policy and visas. He will recognise that such matters are for the Home Office to comment on. However, I can assure him this afternoon that my Department is in regular conversation with counterparts in the Home Office about the concerns that the industry and...
Will the Minister give way?
I will make some progress. I strongly believe in working with those in industry who best know the solutions and how to deliver lasting change, so I will be listening to and working with the industry. I look forward to getting out on the quayside, accepting the invitation from the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East to visit his constituency and engaging with fish markets and processing facilities to hear at first hand what fishermen and those working across the supply chain have to say about our world-class fish and seafood.
Previous Ministers all made a journey to Portavogie, and I extend the same invitation. If he is not going anywhere on holiday during the summer, will he please come to Portavogie? He is very welcome, and he will have the best scampi in the world-I know the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Lara Bird) makes the same claim, but that is by the way. If the Minister has a spare day, he should come to Portavogie. He would be very welcome.
The hon. Member teases me to visit Northern Ireland, knowing that scampi is my dish of choice on a Friday, so perhaps that is a visit we can get into my diary sooner rather than later. I am very aware that the fishing industry faces a multitude of opportunities and challenges. As we have heard in today’s debate, enabling the industry to benefit from opportunities and adapt to challenges is a top priority, building on the good work of my predecessors. At the heart of this is a recognition that for the fishing industry to thrive, it has to be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. I will carefully consider how to address pressure on fish stocks as we enter the autumn peak of negotiations with other coastal states for fishing opportunities.
One of the challenges our fishermen now face is the high cost of fuel. In Ireland, the Government have announced a €15 million fuel aid package for their fishermen; in France, a similar scheme has been announced. Will the UK Government consider a similar scheme to help our fisherman with the high cost of fuel?
I thank the new hon. Member for his intervention-I was waiting for an invitation to visit him in Scotland, but perhaps that will come later. I am very alive to the issues around costs. He will know about the interventions the Treasury has already made on red diesel, which will benefit the fishing community. I continue to monitor the situation closely, working with industry on potential solutions. The extreme temperatures that we have seen this summer have rightly focused attention on climate change, and we must take that more seriously. The fishing industry will need to adapt to the impacts on stocks where new species flourish in our waters and where stocks that we have traditionally fished move away. Also on my mind, as covered in today’s debate, is the need to respond to current and emerging challenges, such as operating costs and pressure for marine space. The fishing and coastal growth fund is therefore one of the key tools that this Government have introduced to support the sector right across the United Kingdom. Shaping how that fund is used in future years is a priority. Having met with my ministerial colleagues in the devolved Governments already, I know that they will be thinking about this too. The context of these issues is important. The fund is in addition to the largest real-terms spending review settlement for the devolved Governments of any settlement since devolution. Importantly, devolution means that all Governments have the autonomy to shape their funds...
The Minister is drawing to the end of his time allocation, but could he explain to fishermen the benefits, as he sees them, of his Government signing away to the EU 12 years of access to our fishing waters?
I would politely say to the shadow Minister that I will take no lectures from the Conservative party, who saw the fishing community decimated with broken promises, fishing numbers down, economic damage done and a dramatic decline in exports. I will take no lectures from him, given his party’s record on these issues. I want to briefly touch on some of the Government’s achievements since 2024. First, I remind hon. Members that, despite a difficult scientific backdrop, the UK has secured access to 640,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities for the 2026 fishing year, estimated to be worth just over £1 billion based on historical landing prices. Our fisheries management plans set out how to maintain or restore fish stocks to sustainable levels. The UK programme is well under way and being delivered in close collaboration with the fishing industry and other stakeholders. We have been working with the industry in England to understand its priorities and those of coastal communities, and that is helping to shape the fishing and coastal growth fund. That is already driving growth for the future. In England, this April, we began to deliver funding through the fisheries and seafood scheme, supporting fishing and seafood industries and coastal communities across England. So far, we have received around 260 applications with a value of around £15 million in grants. Those are just three headline achievements this year, and our work continues at pace on a range of other areas. We are now...
It was remiss of me not to welcome the Minister to his place earlier, and I formally do so now. I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate. We have had a small number of speakers, but it is not about volume; it is about quality. There were lots of references to broken promises; there have been too many broken promises, I am afraid, but let us hope that the future will result in promises kept, and I wish the Minister well in his endeavours in that regard. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bridgwater (Sir Ashley Fox), asked some very searching questions; I agree with him that we need to know what outcomes will flow from the fishing and coastal growth fund. I was particularly interested in the Minister’s reply to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) in relation to immigration, and it sounds very much as if there might be some productive dialogue in the future-let us hope so. I was also very heartened to hear that the hon. Gentleman takes great pride in this industry and that he has a heritage there to draw on; that is wonderful. I endorse the remarks that were made about the impact of fuel costs on the industry and about the dangers that our fishermen and women face when they go to sea-it is a very dangerous occupation. Finally, I want to take issue with one part of the excellent contribution from my hon. Friend the Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Lara Bird): she claimed to have the best fish and chip shop in the world in her constituency. Many...
Sitting adjourned.