Fisheries

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:15 pm on 9 December 2003.

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Photo of John Whittingdale John Whittingdale Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 5:15, 9 December 2003

I suspect that all Governments need to take some of the blame, and I would point at the record of the previous Labour Government, who extended the limits to 200 miles and gave access to EU ships into all those British waters. I want to concentrate on the future, however, and on what the next Conservative Government will do.

It takes three years for a cod to mature, so fishermen point out rightly that if the policy were working, after three years, TACs should start improving. The revision, however, is always downward, and the pressure on the industry increases relentlessly.