Fishing Industry (Hansard, 13 May 1988)

§ Mr. David Porter
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the future role of the producer organisations in the fishing industry.

§ Mr. Gummer
[holding answer 12 May 1988]: Producer organisations will continue to form an integral part of the common organisation of the market. In particular they will continue to manage their membership to ensure that fishing is carried out along rational lines to maximise returns from the market and to ensure grading and labelling requirements are observed.

§ Mr. David Porter
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will outline his practice on gathering information, consulting and announcing his decisions on total allowable catches and related matters to individual fishermen at the ports.

§ Mr. Gummer
[holding answer 12 May 1988]Decisions on total allowable catches are taken by the Council of Fisheries Ministers in the light of the latest scientific advice and other relevant factors. Consultation with the industry is a continual process throughout the fishing year: in particular MAFF fisheries scientists meet the main industry representatives in November of each year to discuss the latest scientific assessments on fish stocks of interest to the United Kingdom. The EC Commission's proposals on total allowable catches are circulated to the main industry organisations for comment and are subject to full parliamentary debate prior to final adoption.

§ Mr. David Porter
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what he hopes to achieve at the next EC Council of Ministers meeting with regard to the fishing industry in general, and the inshore fleets in particular.

§ Mr. Gummer
[holding answer 12 May 1988]: The agenda for the next EC Council of Fisheries Ministers has yet to be finally settled.

§ Mr. David Porter
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to make available to the public information about vessel landings and catches; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
[holding answer 12 May 1988]: Information on vessel landings and catches is published on a regular basis through several channels:

(i)The annual "Sea Fisheries Statistics Table" is a publication of the Government statistical service (GSS) covering landings in the UK and is available through Her Majesty's Stationery Office. There have of late been delays in the production of this publication but more up-to-date figures are generally available on request from the Ministry's statistics unit. A similar publication relating to landings in Scotland is produced by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland.

(ii) Monthly figures on landings by species at the main ports in England and Wales are circulated widely to interested members of the industry. Again DAFS provide similar figures for landings in Scotland.

(iii) Press notices are issued from time to time by MAFF, DAFS and Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland giving summarised landings figures.
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(iv) The UK monthly catch reports to the European Commission in Brussels covering catches of all quota stocks by UK-registered vessels are published in Fishing News.

(v) Following requests from certain producer organisations, the Ministry is now providing PO management with details of landings into England and Wales of particular stocks by individual vessels in membership of the PO. In accordance with the GSS code of practice on data confidentiality, the provision of such data to PO management is with full agreement of each of the vessel skippers or owners involved.