§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria her Department uses in making appointments to the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee; if she will list(a)the membership of the North Eastern Fisheries Committee and (b)the nature of the members' fishing activities; what assessment she has made of the composition of committee membership; and if she will make a statement on the role of the North Eastern Fisheries Committee chairman in making appointments to the committee. [46398]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966 requires members appointed by the Secretary of State to local government Sea Fisheries Committees to be acquainted with the needs and opinions of local fishing interests, or have knowledge of or expertise in, marine environmental matters. These members are expected to represent in a balanced way all the local fishing and marine environmental interests in the waters of the committee districts.
Half the members on each Sea Fisheries Committee are appointed by its constituent local councils; the remainder are appointed by this Department or by the National Assembly for Wales. One member is appointed to each committee by the Environment Agency.
For the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee, the 17 members appointed by the Secretary of State for a four year term commencing June 2001 are: Dr. C. Frid, Mr. D. Heselton, Mr. D. Johnson, Mr. T. Smith, Mr. G. Traves, Mr. M. Emmerson, Mr. G. Collins, Mr. D. Horsley, Mr. F. Nesbitt, Mr. I. Rowe, Mr. J. Wilkinson, Mr. A. Pockley, Mr. C. Easton, Mr. J. Johnson, Mr. J. Linstead, Mr. J. Whitton and Mr. N. Proctor. Between them, these members have many years experience of trawling, gill netting, longlining, salmon netting, shellfish fishing, sea angling, boat chartering and marine ecology and biology. The chairman of the committee has no active involvement in making the Secretary of State's appointments to the committee.