HC Deb 03 August 1972 vol 842 cc197-8W
Mr. James Johnson

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) from figures available from international sources, what subsidies are paid by the Governments of each of the eight nations catching most fish in the North Atlantic for the construction and operation of their distant water fishing fleets;

(2) from figures available from international sources, what is the rate of capital investment in their distant water fishing fleets by each of the eight countries catching most in the North-East Atlantic over the last 10 years.

Mr. Prior

Such information as is available for the countries concerned—with the exception of the Soviet Union, which according to FAO statistics took the second largest catch in 1970—is contained in OECD publications, in particular "Financial Support to the Fishing Industry" (1971), which compares support in 1969 with that given in 1964, "Fishery Policies and Economies (1957–1966)" and the annual "Review of Fisheries in OECD Member Countries". This information is not however in a form which directly answers these Questions, and even an incomplete and therefore possibly misleading analysis would require more time and effort than could be justfied.