Defra rejects call for Sea Use Framework - Ocean and Coastal Futures

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Defra has rejected the central recommendations of a cross-party committee report on rebuilding trust with the fishing industry, including calls for a Sea Use Framework and new regional forums giving fishers a formal role in policy. The rejection came in the government’s formal response to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, published on 23 July, which replies to the Committee’s April report, Resetting the relationship with fishing communities. It has drawn sharp criticism from both MPs and industry leaders.

The Sea Use Framework

The Committee had called for a Sea Use Framework to bring order to competing demands on the seabed, from fishing and offshore energy to raw material extraction and habitat protection, mirroring the Land Use Framework Defra published earlier this year. It wanted the framework developed collaboratively, with a formal mechanism for coastal communities to take part in decisions. Defra rejected the recommendation, arguing that the necessary structures already exist through marine plans, National Policy Statements, the Marine Spatial Prioritisation Programme and the Crown Estate’s Marine Delivery Routemap. On that basis, Defra concluded that a framework was, in its words, effectively already in place, and declined to commit to regular public reporting on the prioritisation programme, citing its evolving nature. Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael said the evidence pointed the other way, arguing that decisions on access to the coastline were being taken without transparency and at the expense of fishing.

‘Stakeholder fatigue’

The most contested element of the response was Defra’s rejection of a proposed UK-wide network of Regional Fisheries Management Forums, which would have brought together fishers, scientists and environmental groups with a formal role in reviewing draft measures. Defra said this was not the right approach, and that it was mindful of what it termed “stakeholder fatigue” given the volume of government activity affecting the sector. Carmichael said the suggestion that officials risked engaging with the industry too much would be met with disbelief in Cornwall and Brixham, England’s largest fishing communities. Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, made a similar point, saying increased engagement counted for little without action, and that repeated failures to act on fishers’ recommendations lay behind the current poor state of relations.

The £360m fund and what comes next

The response also declined to publish the analysis behind the £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund, including the reasoning for its size and 12-year lifespan, or to give year-by-year spending allocations, though it confirmed some funding had been brought forward. Defra confirmed the Barnett formula would be used to allocate money to the devolved nations, with Scotland receiving £28 million, Wales £18 million and Northern Ireland £10 million of the total, despite the Committee recommending an alternative reflecting the size of each nation’s fleet. There was one point of agreement: Defra accepted that the Marine Management Organisation should resume publishing inspection and enforcement data, with figures for the previous three years due in its annual report this autumn. Cohen urged the department to make a stronger case for fishing in its dealings with the Crown Estate and the EU, and to ringfence the fund for its full term.

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