The York-based National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) said the Scottish Government moratorium on the transfer of licences and FQA units has "all the signs of an opening skirmish" in a major battle, as the SNP-led minority government in Edinburgh pursues separatist fisheries policies in Scotland.

Barrie Deas, Chief Executive of the NFFO said:

“This moratorium is profoundly undemocratic and will adversely affect many of the NFFO’s members whose vessels happen to be registered in Scotland. It is driven by a separatist agenda that goes well beyond the powers granted under the devolution settlement.”

To date, licences and quotas have been freely transferable across the UK. But this, said the NFFO,is the first step in an attempt to establish a separate quota regime.

A consultation paper expected later this week will spell out the Scottish Government’s intentions.

But the fear of a flight of licences and quota to a safer haven South of the Border appears to be the motive for the moratorium, the NFFO contends.

"The fact that the Scottish Executive has not shared a draft of the text to Defra officials until Friday is testimony to the desperate state of relations between the two administrations on the issue.

“In the first instance this move will mainly hurt licence holders in Scotland as their assets in quota and licence will immediately have lost value”, said Mr Deas. “But it will affect the whole UK industry, creating uncertainty over business decisions and distracting ministers and officials when their time would be better spent confronting the real issues in fisheries.

“This move is provocative, highly irresponsible and probably illegal,” he said. “There is no such thing as Scottish or English quota. There is UK quota. If the Scottish Executive has any doubts over this, a brief telephone call to the European Commission should allay any doubts.

“There is no basis in law for the Scottish Executive to apply unilateral measures that will have serious consequences across the UK industry. The devolution settlement is simply not pertinent to this question.

“We will be urging Defra to resist irresponsible and unprecedented move,” he added.

The Scottish quota consultation paper is anticipated to be released on Wednesday of this week and say the NFFO, the moratorium was announced by the Scottish authorities to Scottish fishing vessel licence holders at 4.45pm on Friday with all transactions to be completed by the end of the working day.

The NFFO add that quotas are allocated to member states of a fixed formula each year in December, after the Council of Ministers has decided the level of total allowable catch, on the basis of scientific advice. Member states are then responsible for the allocation of quota to different groups and classes of vessel within the member state.

In the UK, a relatively sophisticated system of quota allocation has evolved for the larger vessels, based on producer organisations, with flexibility to trade and transfer between groups and vessels to ensure the most efficient utilisation. Quotas for the smaller vessels are mainly controlled through monthly limits set centrally.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend