Scottish Fishing Industry (Hansard, 17 October 1989)

§ Mr. Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20 for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the crisis facing the Scottish fishing industry. Fishing is one of the basic natural resource industries of Scotland and is 10 times as important to the Scottish economy as to the United Kingdom's economy as a whole. Offshore and onshore, between the catchers, processers and support industries, it employs 30,000 people. In many coastal communities around Scotland, it is by far the dominant industry. Now the industry is in crisis, caught in the vice between falling revenues and rising costs, between low and erratic supplies and penal interest rates. In particular, the North sea haddock quota, which provides the mainstay of the Scottish fleet, is exhausted.

Thoughout the last year, fishing Members of Parliament have warned of the developing crisis and called for policy action. Instead, we have seen a mixture of complacency and confusion on the part of the Government. That complacency was well in evidence in the Lord President's reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Moray (Mrs. Ewing) a few moments ago.

Fishing Members of Parliament and the communities we represent are looking for answers from the Government. We want to know why the structures and licensing policy has been in suspended animation for two years. We want to know if the Government will take advantage of European funding for a lay-up scheme to provide major assistance to the industry. We want to know if and when the Government will introduce a decom-misioning policy to restructure the fleets and reduce catching capacity in a humane manner. We want to know when the industry can expect any response to its imaginative proposals for real conservation of fishing stocks as opposed to the ineffective system of low quotas. We want to know from the Government by what mysterious process the wrecking of the finances of the fishing fleet in the north-east of Scotland through penal interest rates contributes to the reduction of inflationary pressures generated in the south-east of England.

The Scottish fishing industry is caught between a Scottish Fisheries Minister who cannot act and a Minister of Agriculture who will not act. In his first comment on the crisis, the new Minister blamed the fishermen and accepted no governmental responsibility. Given the history of the Government's inactivity in this crisis, that is an absurd claim and the Minister may wish to know that his indifference to the plight of the industry has caused enormous offence in the north-east of Scotland. Clearly he does not, or says he does not, understand the seriousness of the position. We need a debate to educate the Minister, to tell him that Scotland's fishing industry will not be allowed to be sacrificed on the altar of his complacency, to demand an answer to our questions and to force the policy action which is required to save this vital industry and the communities it supports.