Fisheries: Apportioning additional quota between the UK administrations: UK and the Crown Dependencies

Overview

In January 2021, at the end of the transition period, the UK will be an independent coastal State with rights and duties under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to control and manage the resources in our waters. We will have left the Common Fisheries Policy and will no longer be bound by the EU’s outdated and unfair method for sharing fishing opportunities. We are committed to moving away from relative stability to a fairer share of fishing opportunities for our fishing industry across the British Isles.

We will be negotiating with the EU and other coastal States this year on 2021 fishing opportunities, including quotas, for shared fish stocks. There will be negotiations in future years for fishing opportunities beyond 2021.

We aim to secure additional quota in these negotiations - over and above what we had before we left the EU – and we need to be ready to allocate any additional quota we secure. However, we will not know what precise stocks and tonnages we will have in 2021 until negotiations conclude later this year.

Please refer to the PDF version of the consultation document below to view the annex.

Why your views matter

We would like your views on how we split additional quota between the four administrations in 2021. We are working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government and Welsh Government on this and will share the responses to this consultation with them. We are working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government and Welsh Government on this and will share the responses to this consultation with them.

At the same time, we are consulting separately on how we allocate this additional quota to industry in England and the Crown Dependencies. The devolved administrations are responsible for allocating quota in their parts of the UK.

We are also consulting separately on the future of the economic link in England.

Finally, we would like to thank you in advance for your support in this important work. We want to learn from your experience and to take your ideas on board. We need your help to get this right.

What happens next

This consultation ran from 13 October 2020 to 10 November 2020. We received 65 responses.

This consultation ran from 13 October 2020 to 10 November 2020. We received 43 responses. More details on the consultation can be found here.

The government response to this consultation can be found on gov.uk. This sets out how UK additional quota will be apportioned between the four UK administrations.