Richard Benyon MP: We need a radical reform of the failed Common Fisheries Policy

Richard Benyon is Fisheries Minister at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Imagine the level of popular outrage if half the cattle or lamb reared and slaughtered in the UK were dumped along roadsides.

But this is pretty much happening in our seas with the perverse practice of discarding fish. I support the superb Fish Fight campaign run by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

However the challenge is not to just to highlight the problem but to find solutions.
One suggestion, from the Commission, is for an outright ban on discarding fish. Sounds great - so, job done? Well, as is so often the case, life is not that simple.

All the evidence of the past is that if you leave the current broken system of fisheries management in place and just use a little more stick and no carrot with fishermen, it just won't work. What does work is to use fishermen as part of the solution rather than just the problem.

What do I mean?

Look at the catch quota scheme we are developing in the North Sea. Fishermen land everything they catch and are incentivised to fish in ways that avoid catching certain species or fish below a certain size. When they hit an enhanced quota ceiling they must stop fishing. This is achieving the holy grail of fisheries management: catching less but landing more. There will be zero discards this year from vessels fishing under this scheme.

Around 50% of fish discarded in UK waters is as a result of there being no market for them and therefore of no value to skippers. Last year we started a project called ‘Fishing for the Market’. It seeks new markets for species we currently don't eat. Ask your fishmonger for dabs for example. Thousands of these delicious fish are thrown away dead every year because of our unadventurous tastes and eating habits.

The UK is now at the forefront of seeking radical reform of the failed Common Fisheries Policy. We have a window of opportunity of a few months to create a system that moves away from centralised micro-management to regional and fishery based management.

This is a time for a solid Conservative principle. I'm talking about stewardship. When fishermen are incentivised in the right way, they will effectively invest in the long term health of our seas. They need more fish to catch and they want to stop discarding. These two aspirations are mine too.

Richard Benyon MP: British servicemen overseas must not be disenfranchised at the general election

Richard Benyon is MP for Newbury.

At last week’s PMQs I asked the Prime Minister if he would give his assurance that our servicemen and women serving abroad would be able to vote in the coming election. Some people may say that this is a trivial point and that there were many more important matters I should have quizzed him about. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that this is a really important issue because it says so much about how we value our Armed Forces. It would be totally perverse if those fighting abroad for others to be able to vote were themselves denied that same right.
 
The problem arises out of a simple matter of procedure. Postal ballots sent overseas are unlikely to be returned to UK electoral officials in time to be counted. The printing of postal ballot papers for a General Election can only begin after final publication of those nominated on the 11th day before polling day.

In a recent postal trial by the Army Families Federation, the average time for postal ballots to and from various British Forces Postal Office (BFPO) addresses just across the water in Germany, took between eight to twelve working days for the same day return. Mail sent to BFPO addresses in Afghanistan took between twelve to fifteen working days. Printing of ballot papers takes about a couple of days which leaves just nine working days for postal ballots to be mailed, received and returned.

Other countries make proper provision for voting in-theatre, with ballot boxes being treated as priority mail.  Something like that happened for British Forces abroad in the 1945 General Election and for the 1975 Referendum on the European Economic Community.  Other countries manage to provide secure means for their Armed Forces serving abroad to vote, so why can’t we?