Post-Brexit law 'failing' to help fish stocks, Government warned

A FLAGSHIP post-Brexit fisheries law is “failing” to deliver a promised revival of fish stocks and coastal communities, the Government has been warned.

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MPs, environmentalists, and inshore fishermen say the Fisheries Act, brought in after the UK quit the EU's fisheries policy, is continuing to allow overfishing and failing to distribute quota to support local communities.

The warning comes after environmental charity Blue Marine Foundation lost a legal challenge over the law’s requirements to manage fisheries sustainably, as the courts ruled ministers had wide discretion in allocating quota.

Labour MP and chairman of the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) Toby Perkins said: “The 2020 Fisheries Act, written by the Conservative government during Brexit, is failing to deliver its promise of ‘world class sustainable management of fisheries. Instead, it is allowing the continued overfishing of stocks: more than 50 per cent of fishing opportunities were allocated above scientific advice this year and every year since Brexit.”