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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what estimate she has made of the number of fishermen who will lose their jobs due to new regulations introduced under the Restrictive Shellfish Licensing Scheme in (a) Wales and (b) the UK; [126822] (2) whether there is a provision to ease fishing regulations through the Restrictive Shellfish Licensing Scheme if waters are restocked; [126823] (3) whether compensation will be paid for the loss of fishermen's incomes arising from the Restrictive Shellfish Licensing Scheme; and whether there will be separate provision for Welsh fishermen. [126824] Mr. Bradshaw: All fishermen with a fishing vessel licensed by one of the four Fisheries Departments in the UK, will be given an entitlement to fish for crabs, lobsters and crawfish under the Restrictive Shellfish Licensing Scheme subject to demonstrating that they have landed and sold more than 200kg of lobsters or crawfish, or 750kg of crabs in a 12 month rolling period between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2002. Those fishermen with a licensed fishing vessel who do not meet the criteria will nevertheless be entitled to catch 5 lobsters and 25 crabs per day. It is not expected that employment for fishermen in Wales or the UK will be at risk as a result of these arrangements. This Department has no plans to provide compensation for fishermen who do not qualify for the Scheme. By preventing excessive effort increases in the future which would threaten crab and lobster stocks, the Scheme should in fact help to maintain the employment of fishermen whose livelihood depends on them. The possibility of course exists to vary the requirements of the Scheme in future: the additional information we shall be obtaining on shellfishing activity as a result of the Scheme will enable us to consider, in consultation with interested parties, how this might be done.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

409 c837-8W; 126822;126823;126824

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Compensation Fisheries Licensing Fishing catches Redundancy Wales Shellfish Quotas

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk