Charity slams post-Brexit fisheries law

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

- EMILY BEAMENT

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.

Toby Perkins, Labour MP and chairman of the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), 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.