§ Mr. Steenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will investigate the extent to which pressure 189W stock licences are being bought in the Plymouth area and transferred to Spanish fishing vessels; and if he will make a statement about the practice of transferring pressure stock licences from British boats to boats belonging to other countries but registered in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 24 November 1986]: I must emphasise that in exercising Ministers' licensing powers under the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 we are obliged to avoid any discrimination between different categories of vessels on the British fishing vessels register which cannot clearly be justified in terms of United Kingdom and Community law.
I am, however, concerned at the increasing pressure on a number of whitefish stocks subject to quotas in ICES area VII, which includes the Channel and other western waters. This situation could be seriously exacerbated as a result of the transfer of pressure stock licences from smaller vessels to larger ones. It is for this reason that I announced on 21 November an immediate moratorium on the transfer of area VII whitefish pressure stock licences from vessels below 80 ft in length to vessels over 80 ft. I shall review this before the end of the year.
In addition, we will be looking very carefully at the circumstances of all applications for pressure stock licence transfers in the light of the problems to which I have referred.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make it his policy to restrict the issue of pressure stock licences to British nationals fishing from British boats.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 24 November 1986]: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (Mr. Jackson) on 9 December 1985, at column 482, in which I announced new licence conditions for vessels fishing against United Kingdom quotas, to ensure that the vessels have a real economic link with this country. Some of these conditions are currently subject to challenge in the courts, but I am giving serious consideration to such enforcement action as is open to us. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.