Brexit: UK 'to keep more of its fish', Michael Gove says

The fishing industry will get a larger share of domestic catch after Brexit once the UK "decides access" to its own waters, Michael Gove has insisted.

The environment secretary said the UK would be in the "driving seat" in quota negotiations once the UK leaves the EU's Common Fisheries Policy but would not commit to a specific figure.

At the moment, quotas are assigned to each country, with limits on species.

UK fishing groups are pressing to keep more than 80% of domestic catch.

The Scottish government said it had not been properly consulted about the UK's proposals for fishing after Brexit, being unveiled on Wednesday, and had "significant concerns" about them.

The UK says it gets a bad deal under current arrangements. In 2014, half of UK fish production was exported to the EU, a quarter to outside the EU and a quarter was consumed domestically.

There were protests earlier this year when it was revealed that the UK would continue to be bound by the Common Fisheries Policy during the post-Brexit transition period which is due to run until the end of 2020.

Now, ministers are publishing a White Paper setting out their vision for the UK as an "independent coastal state" from 2021 onwards.

It will be followed by a Fisheries Bill which will include the ability to set quotas.

Mr Gove told the BBC that from 2021 the UK would control fishing access to a 200 nautical mile "exclusive economic zone" around its coastline.

While he would not be drawn on what share of catch the UK could keep in this area after Brexit, he said there was no reason the UK should be in a "weaker position" than Norway or Iceland - which retains 80% and 95% respectively of fish caught in their territorial waters.

"Like other independent coastal states, we can decide who has access to our waters and we can ensure that a greater proportion of the fish in our waters is caught by British vessels, landed in British ports and processed by British producers," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

While accepting there would still be annual negotiations over catch quotas in British waters, he said "it will be a negotiation where we hold the cards and we are in the driving seat".

Mr Gove said market access for fish exports - which has yet to be negotiated between the UK and the EU - would be treated separately from the question of access to each other's waters.

The EU has previously suggested the two issues should be tied together.

The government said it would explore a "fairer allocation" based on the distribution of fish stocks rather than historical data, as well as ending the "wasteful discarding of fish" and only allowing boats that meet UK sustainability standards to fish in its waters.

Ministers have said they will publish an annual statement of fish stocks and work with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments, to whom fishing policy is devolved, to help any struggling stocks to recover as well as helping them to "maximise their power to manage their fisheries".

But Scotland's Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said the UK government had "failed to substantively engage" with the Scottish government in drawing up its plans.

He added: "The paper completely ignores the critical importance of ongoing access to labour for the seafood processing sector and, whilst acknowledging seafood trade as 'vital', provides no detail whatsoever on how seafood exports will be protected from potentially damaging trade barriers."

'Backbone needed'

Barrie Deas, of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, welcomed the "clear and cogent" proposals and predicted they would attract "wide support across the industry".

Scottish Fishermen's Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong urged ministers to show "real backbone" in the negotiations ahead.

"At last we have a positive statement of taking back control of our waters and righting some of the wrongs that have been running for forty years," he said.

Fishing featured prominently in the 2016 EU referendum campaign, with Leave campaigners saying the current rules encouraged overfishing and mismanaged stocks - and it led to one of the campaign's most memorable moments as Nigel Farage and Bob Geldof traded insults on boats during a protest on the Thames.

When it was revealed in March that under the transitional arrangements the UK would, in effect, remain part of the EU scheme but without a say in its rules, Mr Gove said he shared the "disappointment" of fishing communities who hoped this would happen on Brexit day but urged them to keep their "eyes on the prize" of getting control.

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