Contributions
1,165 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDFish Products: StandardsI regularly have discussions with Cabinet colleagues on this issue, in particular through the Cabinet Sub-Committee dealing with EU exit. Import controls on fish products are…04 Mar 2021HANSARDOffice for Environmental ProtectionMy hon. Friend makes an important point. Although the timetable for the Environment Bill has slipped by a few months, we are working at pace to implement the policies and measures…04 Mar 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsWe have announced a £23 million fisheries disruption fund specifically to help those exporters who attempted to send consignments of shellfish, or indeed any other fish, during…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsWe are doing everything possible to get the European Union to revisit the decision it appears to have taken and revert to its original interpretation of the law, which we believe…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsMy right hon. Friend makes an important and a good suggestion, so I will indeed write to the chair of the fisheries committee to ensure that they are apprised of the discussions…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsI thank my hon. Friend for her comments. I appreciate that this was a constituent of hers and that it was therefore close to home. All parts of the House also recognise the…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsWe have been working closely with the industry over the past month to iron out some of the difficulties that have been encountered, helping businesses to understand where they…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsThe reality of the trade and co-operation agreement is that its fisheries section delivered a 25% uplift in fishing opportunities, a rebalancing of the sharing arrangements and an…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsI very much agree with my right hon. Friend. It is important that we build domestic demand. Indeed, many fish processors say that demand in the European Union is flat anyway…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsI very much agree with the point that the hon. Gentleman raises. Of course, during the negotiations, we made arguments to the European Union around equivalence—the fact that we…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsWe did not know that there would be such a ban since, at that point, the European Commission was telling us that the trade could continue with the exception of wild-caught…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsThe hon. Lady refers to the evidence I gave to the House of Lords, and indeed that is entirely in line with what I have just set out. It is the case that in September 2019 the…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsMy hon. Friend speaks for many Members of the House representing coastal communities. Yes, indeed, as we leave the European Union there is an opportunity to build back those…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsI absolutely share my hon. Friend’s frustration at the way the EU has conducted itself in this matter. It changed its position just last week, having assured us all along that it…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsFirst, I join my hon. Friend in offering our condolences to the family of the fisherman who was tragically killed in an accident off the Isles of Scilly over the weekend. It is a…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsAs I said in my opening comments, the ban that the EU proposed does not affect bivalve molluscs that are landed into Northern Ireland or that are farmed in Northern Ireland…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsThe UK Government, the hon. Gentleman’s constituents and other bivalve mollusc producers around the country were all promised by the European Commission that this trade could…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsMy hon. Friend makes a very important point. I have focused my comments so far on bivalve molluscs, where the European Union is now proposing an outright ban, which is a change…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsWe will not accept regulatory alignment. This country voted to become an independent, self-governing country again, and to make its own laws again. We were elected as a Government…08 Feb 2021HANSARDUK Shellfish ExportsMy hon. Friend makes an important point. We believe that the EU has simply made an error in interpretation of the law in all the regulations it has cited. We are working closely…08 Feb 2021