22 May 2017
The Management of Fisheries within the UK Zone Post-Brexit
Leaving the EU will provide an opportunity to manage our fisheries in a different way. We can:
⦁ Learn the lessons of the last 30 years within the CFP (mainly things to avoid)
⦁ Learn from the experience of non-EU countries whose management has evolved in different ways
⦁ Simplify the regulatory regime and reduce the regulatory burden
⦁ Develop an effective integrated fisheries administration
⦁ Explore ways of reducing bureaucracy and cost in fisheries management by shifting away from prescriptive micro-management to a focus on outcomes and results (particularly but not exclusively in the realm of technical conservation measures)
⦁ Shorten communication chains between regulators and regulated
⦁ Use increased confidence in catch reporting to reduce the overall level of detailed restriction
⦁ Redesign an integrated regulatory system to better reflect the new conditions outside the CFP to achieve:
⦁ High quality policy decisions and effective negotiations
⦁ Proportionate risk-focussed enforcement
⦁ High levels of understanding and compliance
⦁ Decisions based on solid evidence base
Governance arrangements and the Management of Fisheries
We envisage two layers of management post- Brexit:
1. The design and implementation of measures by the UK authorities that will apply to all vessels operating within UK waters. These would apply to UK vessels and to non-UK vessels operating within UK waters alike. Technical conservation measures would be the obvious example.
2. Where there are shared stocks, it will be desirable to have a mechanism to jointly set agreed exploitation rates, quota shares, access arrangements and long term management strategies
We anticipate that the UK will have much more freedom of movement than under the CFP to design and apply a customised management regime covering:
⦁ Technical conservation measures
⦁ Fleet management and capacity
⦁ Discard Policy
⦁ Market policy
We envisage all aspects of UK policy will be anchored in sustainability and profitability.