HL Deb 30 October 1986 vol 481 cc880-1

35 After Clause 29, insert the following clause: Placing and use of fixed engines (1) For subsection (1) of section 6 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 (under which it is an offence to place a fixed engine in any inland or tidal waters or to use an unauthorised fixed engine for specified purposes) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

  1. "(1) Any person who places or uses an unauthorised fixed engine in any inland or tidal waters shall be guilty of an offence."
  2. (2) In subsection (3) of the said section 6 (definition of unauthorised fixed engine), at the end of paragraph (b) there shall be inserted "; or
  3. (c) a fixed engine the placing and use of which is authorised by byelaws made by a water authority under this Act or by byelaws made by a local fisheries committee by virtue of section (Byelaws under Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966) (2) of the Salmon Act 1986."
  4. (3) In Part II or Schedule 3 to the said Act of 1975 (byelaws), after paragraph 21 there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
21A. Authorising the placing and use of fixed engines at such places in the water authority area (not being places within the sea fisheries district of a local fisheries committee), at such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by the byelaws and imposing requirements as to the construction, design, material and dimensions of such engines, including in the case of nets the size of mesh.".".

The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)

My Lords, I beg to move that this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 35.

This clause fulfils an undertaking given to water authorities and to sea fisheries committees to clear up the difficulties arising over the interpretation of Section 6 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. Section 6(1) of the 1975 Act, as interpreted by the court in the case of Champion v. Maughan and Groves, makes it an offence to place any fixed engine in tidal or inland waters. That interpretation makes it necessary to clarify the meaning of Section 6 and to make provision for the use of fixed engines for purposes other than for catching salmon or sea trout, which is what the ban in Section 6 was originally intended to prevent:

The answer contained in this clause, taken together with the new clause at Amendment No. 37, is to clarify the meaning of Section 6(1) of the 1975 Act in the sense that the placing or use of unauthorised fixed engines is illegal, but fixed engines may be authorised by byelaws made by either a sea fisheries committee or (in areas where such committees do not operate) by a water authority.

Perhaps I may add that to enable sea fisheries committees to make byelaws for this purpose, Amendment No. 37, which we have not yet considered, extends their powers under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966 to allow them to authorise the placing and use of fixed engines for the purposes of Section 6 of the 1975 Act. Subsection (3) of that clause, however, requires that such byelaws may only be made with the consent of the relevant water authority. That would ensure that the salmon conservation aspect would be fully protected.

Moved, That this House do agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(Lord Belstead.)

Lord Moran

My Lords, perhaps I may say that I think the essential objective of this amendment is to achieve integrated management of the resource, and I hope we can do that. I am bound to say that I was concerned about two rivers in Wales, the Dee and the Usk, but since I last spoke on this matter in your Lordships' House I have discovered that the Welsh Water Authority is also the sea fisheries committee for these rivers, so I hope that there will be no conflict on that.

On Question, Motion agreed to.