View: Letter to Daniel Zeichner MP, Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs

Daniel Zeichner MP
Seacole Building 
2 Marsham Street 
London SW1P 4DF 
RE: Fisheries Negotiations

Dear Minister, 

As the UK enters the autumn rounds of fisheries negotiations with our neighbouring states, we would like to stress the importance of a positive outcome for the UK’s historic distant waters fishers, based in and around Hull, Grimsby and the wider Humber region. Prior to 2019 the fleet was bringing home one in eight portions of the cod and haddock sold in Britain’s fish and chip shops – good-quality fish from the waters of Norway straight to our chippies.
 
At that time they typically landed around 20,000 tonnes of whitefish annually from the Barents Sea in Hull, contributing to the food security of the UK and the economy of the North East in the form of good quality jobs and investment.

Last year, after five years of bungled negotiations by the previous administration, that figure had collapsed to under 6,500 tonnes, with just 500 tonnes caught in Norwegian waters, and just one vessel of the former three still able to catch fish for the UK.

The gap in the fish and chip shop supply chain has been filled by Norwegian, Icelandic and even Russian fish. We are assured that a thoughtful negotiaton with Norway could rebalance this outcome to bring back jobs and millions of pounds in investment to Hull and surrounding areas, and respectully request that you task your team with reprioritising this national resource in this year’s talks with Norway to bring home  British fish for our country and restore the health of our industry.

Yours Sincerely, 

Melanie Onn MP 
Martin Vickers MP 
Karl Turner MP 
Alison Hume MP