§ 28. Sir Walter Cleggasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will make a statement about his Department's consultations with the Manx Board of Agriculture and Fisheries; and what implications there are for an agreed common fisheries policy.
§ Mr. JoplingMy officials together with those of the other Fisheries Departments have had discussions in recent months with officials of the Isle of Man Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on issues arising from the report of the Manx commission of inquiry into the fishing industry. Our officials made clear to the Manx officials that the waters adjacent to the island are now subject to the provisions of Community legislation in the common fisheries policy and pointed out the potential difficulty which any discriminatory licensing arrangements in favour of Manx vessels and against United Kingdom vessels would present to the United Kingdom Government. They held a preliminary discussion of the commission of inquiry's recommendations for conservation measures and pointed out that conservation in the waters adjacent to the United Kingdom and the islands was now subject to Community legislation, which among other things narrowly defines the scope for national measures and requires Commission approval of them.