Decommissioning of Fishing Vessels Scheme 2007

I am grateful to the Minister for the way in which he has introduced this scheme, and for explaining it to the Committee in detail. We support the scheme, but I shall raise one or two questions. All of us wish to see the conservation of our sole fish stocks. If we can in some way protect it better than the cod stocks were protected at the time, it must be for the benefit of the industry as a whole. The Minister told us that £5 million had been put on one side, likely to cover the cost of some 12 boats in total. Out of interest, that is 12 out of how many? I do not know how many other boats are involved. We are pleased that the Government have raised the payments by 16 per cent. The Minister spoke about the communities involved. I reinforce what he said: it is a dangerous and precarious occupation. From the briefing that came with the statutory instrument, I gather that this applies to those fishermen who would be able to seek grants from Sussex, Devon and Cornwall. I do not think that there was anywhere else; again, I seek clarification. The statutory instrument rightly says that the licence must show that the vessel is administered in an English port. Are any foreign vessels registered as such, which would therefore qualify, or is this all to do only with English fisherman and their boats? It is not totally clear; I may have misread it slightly, but I desperately try not to. On the grants being paid and the vessel decommissioned, is it also written in—again, I could not see it—that once that owner has received the money, that money cannot be used to upgrade another existing fishing vessel? Certainly, there has been a worry in some of the decommissioning discussions we have had in the past that when the Spanish fleet in particular received their money, they invested heavily in upgrading the existing fishing vessels, meaning that they could land greater quantities of sole than they could have done in the previous vessels. I am not suggesting that this applies to the Spanish fleet, but has that been taken into consideration in relation to the scheme? I would be glad if the Minister could give me more specific information about paragraph 4(6) on awarding a grant, which says: "““He must allocate the grant to the vessels that rank highest””." Can he clarify how vessels rank highest? Are boats that catch the largest amount of fish ranked the highest? I am not sure how that works. The sub-paragraph continues, "““giving each grant in full until there is not enough money left in the scheme to pay any more bids in full””." I therefore presume that there is that ceiling of £5 million, to which the Minister referred. However, there could well be more bids that went beyond that amount. Again, I would be grateful for any clarification. The Explanatory Memorandum sets out the various impacts and options, and mentions the decommissioning of 10-metre vessels on the final page. Option 2 may have been considered and got lost in the wash in the scheme as it is. Under ““Benefits to vessel owners””, option 2 says: "““Any vessel owner in receipt of decommissioning grant, irrespective of the option taken will benefit from receiving the grant money, and retain the economic value of the Fixed Quota Allocations previously attached to their vessel, which can either be leased or sold””." Does that apply under the scheme, or is it just one of the options that were considered? If those stocks were increased and became much more sustainable, the restrictions placed on the amount of fish that can currently be caught might well be lifted. However, it is not very clear in the order. Presumably if the owner is still allowed to keep his quota, he—or she—might decide to keep it for himself in the future, or he might decide to regard that quota allocation as a tradable commodity. Again, I am not quite clear on that. Those are my questions about the scheme; the Minister has been very clear about the other issues.