Clause 222
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Huw Irranca-Davies (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Marine and Natural Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Ogmore, Labour)
This has been another good discussion about the Bill and what is happening outside it too. My hon. Friend is right to point out that currently fish theft carries a maximum penalty of £200 during the day and £1,000 at night, and, potentially, imprisonment for three months. Clause 222 amends paragraph 2 of schedule 1 of the Theft Act 1968, raising the penalty for committing the offence of taking or destroying fish to level 5 on the standard scale—£5,000. Some such fish, not least carp, change hands on the black fish market for £1,000 a piece and more.
My hon. Friend referred to the consultation recently launched by the Environment Agency. I am pleased that the Angling Trust and others are fully engaged in the consultation, on how many fish, if any, might be taken from fisheries and rivers. The byelaws will be drafted based on the public response to the consultation, using the powers in the Bill. Those byelaws will deal with fish theft, and the EA has been constrained to act before the amendments give it the power, once the Bill has received Royal Assent. I also draw my hon. Friend’s attention to powers that we have given the EA, under clause 218, to make byelaws to set maximum size limits on fish that may be removed from a fishery.
Finally, schedule 16(8) would remove the current exemption for owners of certain private fisheries to permit anglers to remove freshwater fish during the close season, as that would undermines any catch and release byelaws that the agency may introduce to address fish theft. My hon. Friend’s points are well made.