The Second Reading of the Fisheries Bill will take place in the House of Commons later today.
The Fisheries Bill provides the framework for managing our fisheries as an independent coastal state. The Bill will enable the UK to control who comes into our waters through a new foreign vessel licensing regime and ends the current automatic rights for EU vessels to fish in UK waters.
Underpinning everything in the Bill is the Government's commitment to sustainability, ensuring healthy seas for future generations of fishermen. This Bill introduces new fisheries management plans which will allow a holistic, sustainable approach to be taken when managing our fisheries. The Bill includes new powers to protect the marine environment in England, Wales, and Scotland, and powers to implement the technical measures necessary to manage fishing activity in UK waters effectively.
In addition, the Bill establishes UK-wide fisheries objectives, and a Joint Fisheries Statement which will set out policies to achieve these objectives. This will provide more transparency for our fisheries management policies than was seen under the Common Fisheries Policy. This framework recognises that fisheries is devolved, but each Administration agrees the common objectives that our fisheries management policies must collectively or individually deliver.
The Government delivered on its promise to get Brexit done and we have left the EU. The Fisheries Bill seizes on the opportunities that that brings and makes clear our intentions to continue to operate on the world stage as a leading, responsible independent coastal state.
