New UK fisheries minister

Richard Benyon MP has been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries.

His portfolio will include :

• Natural environment, Ecosystem services, Biodiversity
• National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, Wildlife, JNCC
• Flooding and water (including Nitrates), Inland waterways (including British Waterways)
• Land management (including commons and contaminated land) and soil
• Rural Affairs, Coastal erosion, Marine and Coastal Access Act implementation
• Marine Management Organisation, Coastal and wider access, countryside and rights of way
• Marine Environment, Fisheries, including CFP, EU Fisheries Council

Richard Benyon has been MP for Newbury since May 2005. Before coming to government Mr Benyon served as a Shadow Minister for the Environment, Fisheries and Wildlife.

Benyon in Parliament:

Oral Answers to Questions – Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Topical Questions 26 February 2009

Mr. Richard Benyon : Recreational sea anglers have virtually no impact on the marine environment. In fact, they can be a great help in terms of our knowledge of fish stocks. Some 1.1 million sea anglers will welcome the EU Commissioners row-back on plans to include the recreational catch in national quotas. Does the Minister accept that this issue will not go away until the Commissioner defines “recreational sea angler, and will he tell us what efforts he is making to bring closure on this ludicrous proposal?

Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question and, although we have met on other occasions in Committee before, I welcome him to his first DEFRA questions as an Opposition spokesman. He is right that this is an important issue. The angling fraternity in the UK is huge: it has an important function socially as well as economically, and its members are known for their environmental concerns. We share the concern about the need for an adequate definition of “recreational angling, as the definition applied in other EU member nations is not the same as the one that affects us here. We are actively engaged in work on this with the Commission, and I join the hon. Gentleman in welcoming the comments by Commissioner Jo Borg. We shall continue our work, and I welcome the hon. Gentlemans support in highlighting those concern.

Hansard link :

Category: UK Government News