§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the benefits assessed by his Department as accruing to the United Kingdom fishing fleet from the common fisheries policy. [30363]
§ Mr. BaldryThe benefits to the United Kingdom fishing industry flowing from the common fisheries policy include
tighter restrictions than applied before we joined the Community on access by foreign vessels within our 12 mile fishery limits;restrictions on access to areas such as the Shetland box and the Irish box;a larger share of fish quotas in Community waters than was justified by our historic catch record in the 1973 to 1978 reference period used when quota shares were decided;fishing opportunities in the waters of non-member states secured through the Community's bilateral agreements with those countries;access to European Community grant schemes;a co-ordinated policy to reduce the size of fleets of all member states;a common policy on conservation rules enabling us to influence the rules applied in the waters of other member states to the benefit of our industry;monitoring of enforcement standards in all member states by the European Commission.