HERRING FISHING INDUSTRY (Hansard, 6 May 1964)

§ LORD BOOTHBY
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, SCOTTISH OFFICE (LORD CRAIGTON)
My Lords, the Chairman of the Herring Industry Board has accepted responsibility for the mistake to which the noble Lord refers. We all regret this unfortunate mistake in the Board's office. The Board have proposed to the fishermen's associations that retrospective payments should be made to bring up to 27s. 6d. per cran the price actually paid to fishermen who sold them herring at Stornoway.
There is no doubt that the fishermen who took their drifters to the Minch 1233 during the winter faced difficulties, but this was largely because markets were very sluggish and much poorer than in 1962, as a result partly of the good summer fishing in 1963, and partly of the lack of demand from abroad: for example, in the last four months of 1963 the market (other than for fishmeal) was able to absorb little more than 40,000 cran of herring from the North Minch ports, compared with rather more than 80,000 cran in the comparable period of the previous year. This is clearly a much more telling factor in the difficulties faced during the winter months than the underpayment in the price of fishmeal at Stornoway.
My right honourable friend does not feel it necessary to make any changes in the composition of the Board, but he has invited the Chairman to discuss the administration of the Board's affairs with him, with a view to ensuring that there shall be no more failures of this kind.

§ LORD BOOTHBY
My Lords, I should like to ask my noble friend whether he is aware that the repeated warnings of the Member for East Aberdeenshire in another place, and of myself, were brushed aside by the Government, who said there was no crisis whatsoever in the herring fishing industry. The recantation and abject apologies which have now been made by Her Majesty's Government and the Herring Industry Board will do nothing to help the fishermen who had to come home at Christmas, and return to seine-net fishing. I should like to ask my friend one question. This blunder was of great magnitude, as has been admitted by Her Majesty's Government. Is nobody at all going to be sacked? If private industry were run on these lines, it would be bankrupt within a month. Unless Her Majesty's Government, and the Herring Industry Board, take greater care of the herring industry, upon which the whole basis of sea power in this country was built up, in the reigns of Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I, they will kill it. I ask for an assurance from the noble Lord that Her Majesty's Government will give instructions to the Herring Industry Board to make such recommendations as will ensure the survival rather than the destruction of the herring fishing industry. That was the 1234 object Parliament had in mind when it established the Herring Industry Board.

§ LORD CRAIGTON
On the question of any sackings, that is a matter for the Board and, as I have said, my right honourable friend is seeing the Chairman himself. On the question of giving instructions to the Board, the Board have their statutory duty. This is a very unfortunate occurrence. I think the noble Lord is wrong in the use of the word "collapse" in regard to the blame for this particular failure. As I tried to explain in my Answer, there were many other considerations which had to be taken into account in the winter period. The fishermen's accounts which have now been analysed show that the majority of drifters did as well in 1963 as in 1962, and 1962 was a relatively good year. Having said that, I am fully seized of the difficulties of the industry, and can assure the noble Lord that we will do everything we can to prevent a repetition of this trouble.

§ LORD BOOTHBY
I thank the noble Lord. I will gladly withdraw the neat expression "collapse", and substitute "temporary collapse"; and I hope that it will be only temporary.