§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what has been the total cost to public funds of all registered fishing vessels decommissioned over each of the last five years; [30366]
(2) what plans he has to promote further decommissioning of the United Kingdom's registered fishing vessels. [30367]
§ Mr. BaldryThere were no UK decommissioning schemes in 1991 and 1992. The 1993–94, 1994–95 and 1995–96 schemes have cost £7.8 million, £8.8 million and £9.6 million respectively.
In the light of experience with these schemes, a consultation paper was issued seeking views on possible improvements to the arrangements. These are reflected in the details of the 1996–97 scheme announced on 9 May, for which some £13 million is available. There is currently provision of up to £12 million for a further scheme in 1997–98.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number of United Kingdom registered vessels fishing for demersal species in the North sea over the past five years together with the total size of the demersal catch, the total value of the demersal catch and the number of demersal vessels decommissioned during each of the last five years for which figures are available. [30365]
§ Mr. BaldryFigures showing the landed quantity and value of demersal fish, including nephrops, caught in the North sea, ICES area IV, for the years 1991–1994 inclusive are given in table 1.
These include species for which there is no mandatory reporting requirement in respect of fishing activity. Moreover, fishing activity is generally recorded in terms of total effort deployed by stocks and area. Extracting the information requested about numbers of vessels would involve disproportionate cost and fail to give a complete picture of activity in relation to all demersal species in the North sea.
Table 2 gives details of the number of vessels decommissioned in each round of the current programme by broad demersal segment.
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Table 1: Landings of demersal species, including nephrops, by the UK fleet of catches in the North Sea: quantity and value 1991 1992 1993 1994 Total demersal (including nephrops) Tonnes liveweight 202,603 215,132 142,339 249,715 Thousand. 215,948 209,873 225,705 237,756
Table 2: UK fishing vessels decommissioned in the last 5 years; number by demersal segment Decommissioning scheme for: Vessels over 10 metres overall length 1993 1994 1995 Segment Beam trawl 4 8 6 Demersal trawl/seiners 84 109 54 Nephrop trawl 17 8 0 Lines and nets 9 24 33