My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for moving these rather meaty statutory instruments. I would like to place on record my admiration for the then fisheries Minister in the other place, my honourable friend Richard Benyon, for the fisheries policy that he negotiated. It has been revolutionary and has changed the way that fisheries policy is decided and conservation measures are taken. It set the scene by allowing coastal states to agree what the conservation measures would be.
Under the new provisions that we are adopting this evening, with retained EU law and making sure, as she said, that there is a smooth transition to our becoming a third country, if one cares about conservation of fisheries going forward, how will we agree conservation measures with the nearest coastal state? The way that the map is drawn means that we virtually share waters with our nearest neighbour, France. The Scottish fisheries situation is slightly different in that Scotland does not have a near neighbour in the sense of backing up to a coastal state.
Having said that, I think that Scottish fishermen will be deeply interested in one of the few—three, in fact—rollover agreements that has been agreed: that with the Faroe Islands, where we take £200 million mostly in fish products each year. Obviously, that will compete directly with the Scottish fisheries. I understand that the agreements with Norway and Iceland are not yet available to view, but I would imagine that most of the imported products from Norway and Iceland will also be in fisheries. I have two questions on that. First, what discussions have there been in the Joint Ministerial Council on the rollover agreements to date, the future rollover agreements and the implications, particularly for Scottish fishermen? Secondly, how will we agree going forward to conserve those fish? I have always maintained that fish do not wear a union jack; they swim between the various waters and it is very difficult to control them. We need a conservation policy that will be shared on an ongoing basis with our near neighbours, the French and others, with whom we currently share a common fisheries policy. Going forward, I am sure that it will be the Government’s intention to do this.
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My noble friend the Minister explained that, through these SIs, we will agree total allowable catches and quotas; and she set out the arrangements in these for 2019. She will be aware of an ongoing problem that currently plagues most coastal fisheries in the United Kingdom, which has absolutely nothing to do with the common fisheries policy. It could have—but has not—been resolved within the terms of the common fisheries policy. Will the Minister confirm—where it is appropriate and where there is a surplus in the quota—that we will take this opportunity to allow inshore fishermen, particularly under 10 metre fishermen, an increased quota of cod?
The reason I make this plea is that I was for five years the MP for Filey. There is now only one boat—or possibly there are no boats—fishing out of Filey. In that part of north Yorkshire they fish predominantly for shellfish but they have always made this plea about cod. So too has my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with whom I visited Hastings a number of years ago to see how they would benefit from an additional quota for cod where appropriate. As we are leaving the European Union and setting up our own quota, will my noble friend the Minister use this opportunity, where there is a supply of cod, to allow these inshore fishermen access to that cod quota? It would potentially increase their livelihood and their income substantially.