§ 9. Mr. SteenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to renegotiate the common fisheries policy; and if he will make a statement. [27463]
§ Mr. BaldryI am taking forward a number of sensible initiatives to reform the common fisheries policy.
§ Mr. SteenWhile we realise that my hon. Friend the Minister will do his best to win back the 20 per cent. quota that Spanish flags of convenience have stolen from British fishermen, is he aware that it is not Europe, but his officials, who have closed down an oyster plant in my constituency by gold-plating a European directive about clean water which has been so vociferously and actively pursued that even my local environmental health officer says that MAFF officials are wrong? He has closed down an inshore fishery even though it has for eight years been run as a first-rate fishery.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. An Adjournment debate is the answer to that one.
§ Mr. BaldryThe business to which my hon. Friend refers has been closed because of clear advice from the fish diseases laboratory at Weymouth that the purification practice operated by the business posed an unacceptable risk to human health. If he wishes to examine the evidence, I shall be glad to take him through it.