Fishing quota - additional allocation from 2024: consultation - business and regulatory impact assessment

4. Public Consultation

A consultation was held between 19 October 2023 and 11 January 2024. To inform our impact assessments and raise awareness of the consultation, a number of sessions were held virtually during the consultation period between sectoral groups, fishing representative bodies, non-sector fishing interests and environmental NGOs.

The consultation sought views on seven options for allocation of additional quota, stressing that the most likely outcome would be a combination of methods. 91 responses were received from a wide range of interests including the above, but additionally receiving responses from local authorities, port authorities, onshore businesses related to fishing and private individuals.

Having considered consultation responses and Ministers obligations under section 25 of the Fisheries Act 2020, we will:

• Allocate the majority of AQ based on the historic track record of vessels, based on an annually updated reference period, beginning in 2025.
• Continue to make ‘Special Allocations’ to non-sector vessels with immediate increases for three species with good uptake: North Sea Cod, North Sea Saithe and Mackerel.
• Retain the option to allocate quota on an equal basis between eligible vessels resulting from swaps of fishing quotas with other coastal states.
• Require bids from sectoral vessels to access the West of Scotland Cod AQ, principally on environmental grounds (from 2025 as this requires developing an application, evaluation and monitoring framework).