QUOTA HOPPERS AND THE BRITISH FISHING INDUSTRY

Early day motion 98, tabled 10 June 1997 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 42 members.

That this House, concerned that foreign-owned quota hoppers now constitute a quarter of the British fleet and catch and land abroad as much as a half of some of the fishing quotas allocated to British fishing communities, urges Her Majesty's Government to include within the treaty resulting from the IGC a protocol separating admission to national registers and access to national quotas and allowing states to regulate quota access under the principle of subsidiarity; further points out that unless the problem of existing quota hoppers is dealt with, the heavy cuts proposed under the Multi Annual Guidance Programme IV will be impossible for the British fleet to reach, thus precluding once again British access to European funding to modernise and regenerate the fishing fleet in the way competing fleets have been rebuilt, and, in the case of Spain, expanded; and therefore warns that the main burden of cuts should fall on existing quota hoppers otherwise all proposals to reduce effort and catches by a disproportionate decommissioning of British vessels or by days at sea limitation of the type which the industry and the then opposition parties successfully rejected under the last government will be disastrous for a British fishing industry, which needs support, encouragement, financial confidence and the prospect of a better future, not decimation.

Signatures by party: Labour 17, Liberal Democrat 10, Conservative 9, Labour/Co-operative 2, UUP 2, Scottish National Party 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.