This report presents the completed Association of Sea Fisheries Committees (ASFC) response to the UK Marine Bill consultation and provides an update on the development of fisheries policy in Wales.

1.1 The White Paper was published in March and the consultation deadline is 8 June 2007. After detailed discussion at the Scientific and Byelaws meeting (20 April 2007), the Committee resolved to endorse a single response from the ASFC on behalf of all the SFC. The White Paper was also the main item on the agenda of the ASFC on 2 May 2007.

1.2 Officers are reasonably satisfied that the ASFC response contains the substantive comments of this Committee to the White Paper. Accordingly, and subject to Members’ views, a separate response from this Committee may not be required.

2.1 Committee Officers were invited by NAW Officials to attend a workshop of the ‘drafting group’ for a proposed Welsh Fisheries Strategy on 10 May 2007. The purpose of the workshop was to progress previous work towards this strategy which has been undertaken (with very little SFC involvement to date) over the past 18 months. An early draft of the strategy was circulated by NAW in preparation for the meeting on which Officers made extensive comment beforehand. At this stage the strategy was largely written by representatives of sectors of the fishing industry independently and required considerable editing to formulate a common structure and style.

2.2 Following the 10 May meeting, the structure and contents of the strategy have been redrafted as at Annex B by NAW officials who aim to present a finished product to Ministers by the end of June. A 12 week public consultation would then take place from July 2007. NAW have identified The Royal Welsh Show as a possible launch venue on 2 July 2007. In order to achieve this ambitious target, the timescale proposed by NAW (Annex B, Table 1) is tight.

2.3 The main component of the redraft is that previous industry authors have been requested to redraft their sections with a tighter focus and the two Welsh Sea Fisheries Committees have agreed to provide a management section which was absent from the earlier draft. Once the next draft is available it will be circulated to the Committee for comment.

2.4 Committee officers expressed their concerns at the 10 May meeting that this strategy is being developed in the absence of any decisions regarding future management arrangements for Welsh fisheries or the wider marine environment of Wales. At the time of writing, the new Welsh Assembly has not been formulated and there are no decisions on the future of inshore fisheries management in Wales. Also, there is as yet, no timetable for the consultation on SFC announced in autumn 2006. Similarly, decisions on other main proposals in the Marine Bill such as the role of any marine management organisation in Wales, new marine nature conservation measures or the need for marine spatial planning, are awaited.

2.5 NAW officials provided the following policy position regarding the UK Marine Bill on 16 May: NAW supports the measures being introduced in the Bill for the modernisation of SFCs. However once a new Welsh Government is in place officials will seek confirmation from the new Ministers that they wish to consult on a proposal to take to itself all the powers contained in the Marine Bill. Welsh Ministers will look to take parallel powers to those being proposed for English Ministers in the Bill. Whether and how either administration uses those powers is for future discussion in and between the Departments, but talks between the departments are ongoing. The only definite decision thus far is by the Welsh Minister on an MMO when he has made it clear that Wales will not automatically be covered by an MMO but, depending on the scope of any MMO, the Welsh Minister might decided to avail himself of some of the services provided by such an organisation.