A recent legal briefing on the UK quota distribution system, where allotment rights can be handed over to Fish Producer Organisations, shows that the arrangement is open to judicial challenge.
The UK has 12 percent of the EU’s landings and one of the largest exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the EU. For much of the commercial sector, the UK has individually tradable permits where quota can be traded between fishers, although there are a number of restrictions which apply.
Both the current tradability of fishing rights and the delegation of power to distribute the rights to Fish Producer Organisations (FPOs) are questioned in the study. The briefing shows that about three-quarters of UK fishermen who use boats which are less than 10 metres long are being illegally denied their fair share of the quota – at the same time many of them constitute a more environmentally friendly alternative to trawlers.
The briefing was produced by Thomas Appleby, a senior law lecturer at the University of the West of England, for OCEAN2012. Interviewed in The Independent earlier this week, he said that “aspects of the current quota system are open to judicial challenge on the grounds of the illegality of the current arrangements”.
He also said the delegation of statutory responsibility to the FPOs for handing out quotas is questionable because legislation was never created to allow them that role, and argued that the quota-distribution system is leading to privatisation of a publicly owned resource.