Distant-water Trawlermen (Hansard, 21 October 1999)

§ 9. Shona McIsaac (Cleethorpes)
When he expects to complete his report on compensation for distant-water trawlermen. [93394]

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Elliot Morley)
Agriculture and Trade Ministers are jointly examining the case for providing compensation, and I hope that that will be completed shortly.

§ Shona McIsaac
My question was about compensation for distant-water trawlermen. I believe that Question 8 was taken earlier, which may have led to some confusion.

§ Madam Speaker
Would the Minister repeat the answer?

§ Mr. Morley
I shall repeat it slowly.
Agriculture and Trade Ministers are jointly examining the case for providing compensation, and I hope that that will be completed shortly.

§ Shona McIsaac
I apologise.

§ Madam Speaker
The hon. Lady might just say thank you.

§ Shona McIsaac
We are here to serve, Madam Speaker.
564 Do my hon. Friend and his colleagues on the Front Bench appreciate the deep sense of injustice felt by people in the fishing communities of Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Hull and Fleetwood when they keep hearing of the amount of money that goes to certain sectors of the farming community, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) referred earlier? They feel that time and again, they are being overlooked. When will the Department put right that injustice, which was perpetrated throughout the Tory years? All the warm words in the world will not heat the homes or pay the bills for those men.

§ Mr. Morley
My hon. Friend makes a powerful case on behalf of distant-water fishermen, as have my hon. Friends the Members for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell), for Hull, West and Hessle (Mr. Johnson) and for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble). The matter is under consideration, but, in all fairness, this is not a simple issue. We are dealing with events of more than 20 years ago, as well as the issues of cost, the tracing of people who were sailing in those fleets and the mechanism and legal process through which we could deal with the matter.
However, my hon. Friend makes a strong argument and has a powerful case. For that reason, there will be a joint study by the two Departments and consideration will be given to how the matter can be addressed and whether it will be possible to do so.

§ Mr. Patrick Nicholls (Teignbridge)
What confidence can hon. Members on either side of the House have in what the Parliamentary Secretary has just said, when one considers the shambles that the Government are making of safety compensation? Does the hon. Gentleman recall that, just before the European elections, the Deputy Prime Minister travelled to the west country to say very publicly that he had overruled the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and that he was restoring the safety compensation grants that his right hon. Friend had cancelled? This week, the Western Morning News reports that a MAFF spokesman has now said that the Minister is overruling the Deputy Prime Minister and those compensation grants will not be paid at all. Does not the British fishing industry, which has a right to expect better from the Government, looks at that shambles and views the Government with a mixture of pity and contempt?

§ Mr. Morley
The British fishing industry has a right to expect better than that question from the hon. Gentleman. The Deputy Prime Minister has made it clear that fishing safety grants will be reinstated, and MAFF has made no attempt to overrule that.
The issue that the hon. Gentleman seems to misunderstand is that some sections of the fleet—the under 12 m fishing fleet, in particular—never had access to safety grants. There may well be new safety standards for those sections, and as the MAFF safety grants have finished, it is right that before any new grant is decided, we should look at its implications, how it should be used, who should get it and where the priority should lie. That is under consideration, and an announcement will be made in due course.