In October 2017, the Tenancy Reform Industry Group highlighted potential barriers to productivity in the farming sector caused by agricultural tenancy laws and proposed ideas for reform. This article provides a summary of that report and action the Government has taken since.
Documents to download
-
EU Committee Reports: EU Fisheries Landing Obligation (230 KB, PDF)
- In 2013, EU Member States agreed to introduce the fisheries landing obligation. This was intended to reduce and ultimately eliminate the discard of fish and other marine animals by the sea fishing industry. Discards happen either because the animals caught are not wanted or because fishers have reached their quota for a particular species. The practice has been criticised by marine conservationists as having a damaging impact on marine ecology.
- The fisheries landing obligation requires fishers to return to land with their catch and not discard unwanted fish into the sea. It was introduced gradually from 2015 and came fully into force in January 2019. Some fish are exempt, including those with high survival rates.
- During the 2017–19 session, the EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee held an inquiry in to the implementation of the landing obligation. Its report, published in February 2019, concluded that the landing obligation showed little sign of having its intended effect. It found neither the UK Government nor the devolved administrations had put in place mechanisms to monitor compliance with the obligation. It also identified the issue referred to as “choke”: where the exhaustion of the quota of one type of fish prevents fishers catching their quota of other types of fish.
- The then Government responded to the sub-committee’s report in April 2019, stating it would call on the EU to review the operation of the landing obligation. It also said the UK would continue to combat the discard of fish once the UK had left the EU.
- The sub-committee decided to hold a follow-up inquiry to consider the impact of the landing obligation six months on. It concluded in its second report the landing obligation was having little effect and there were still not systems in place to effectively monitor compliance. The then Government responded that, while some progress had been made, more needed to be done to: enforce the landing obligation; collect data on discards; and combat chokes in mixed fisheries.
- The landing obligation was raised during a debate on Common Fisheries Policy (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 in the Lords. However, this will be the first opportunity to debate both of the two sub-committee reports on the landing obligation.
Documents to download
-
EU Committee Reports: EU Fisheries Landing Obligation (230 KB, PDF)
Related posts
-
-
The Ozone Depleting Substances and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 would implement the Northern Ireland protocol specifically in relation to restricting the use of ozone depleting substances (ODS) and fluorinated greenhouse gases (F gases). It would mean that EU law on these issues would apply to Northern Ireland following the transition period. It would also implement controls on the movement of relevant gases, substances and equipment between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
-
On 8 December 2020, the House of Lords will debate government proposals to further amend the rules that will govern the domestic regime for regulating the chemicals industry following the end of the Brexit transition period. Concerns have been raised regarding the administration of this new system and its impact on UK businesses. This article summarises the new draft regulations and the reaction to the Government’s proposals.
