Tom Appleby, van der Werf, and Chris Williams have analysed the current situation in a recent paper.

Abstract/Description

The UK’s fishery is a public asset worth in the region of £1,125 million. The free allocation of quota to commercial businesses on the basis of 2 years’ track record is a similar process to permitting that public asset to be squatted. The complex and badly drafted regulation which underpins this process has permitted a great deal of uncertainty in the allocation of fishing quota and the opaque mechanisms for the allocation of quota are likely to lead to concentration of quota among a few fishing businesses. This is largely responsibility of the UK authorities rather than European Union. It will need primary legislation to resolve this issue and establish a proper transparent system according to the practices conducted almost universally elsewhere in government when disposing of public assets to the private sector.

Appleby, T., van der Werf, Y. and Williams, C. (2016) The management of the UK’s public fishery: A large squatting claim? Working Paper. University of the West of England. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28855