§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) whether he has identified the vessels and fish producers' organisations which over-fished the west coast saith's quota, resulting in premature closure; and what action he proposes to take against them.;
(2) what compensation he proposes to offer to the Grimsby Fish Producers Organisation whose west coast saith quota was prematurely closed because of overfishing by other vessels.
§ Mr. GummerAs regards penalties and compensation for over- or under-fishing of sectoral quotas, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Kingston-upon-Hull, West (Mr. Randell) on 17 July. We shall consider the application of these arrangements once the final catch figures for the different organisations are available and once we know whether or not additional saith opportunities are available from another member state.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what measures he proposes to ensure that overfishing and premature closure of the west coast saith quota does not happen again.
§ Mr. GummerFisheries Departments are urgently reviewing arrangements for monitoring catches in the area IV and VI white fisheries, and will put in hand any possible improvements identified. In addition, we propose to discuss with the industry the possibility of arrangements for suspending licences of any group approaching the limit of its sectoral allocations so as to allow a definitive assessment to be made of the catch position before the allocation is exceeded.