Review of the Amended Economic Link License Condition

5. Review on the impact on the demersal and shellfish sector

As can be seen in Table 1, the vast majority of non-pelagic species covered by Scottish economic link provisions (Nephrops, haddock, monkfish, cod, hake and whiting) covered by economic link provisions are landed into Scotland. It therefore follows that in terms of overall landings, the Scottish fishing fleet comfortably surpass the required 55% landing obligation, with only a small minority of vessels not achieving the 55% condition. This is a continuation of the trend evident prior to 2023, and there seems to be little evidence of any change in behaviour following the amendment of the policy.

As part of the measures announced in September 2022, vessels landing small amounts of species covered by TAC were excluded from the provisions. We did set out in the consultation outcome that a small number of Scottish demersal and shellfish vessels, which landed their catch into other parts of the UK, would be impacted by the policy change. To this end we increased the tonnage at which vessels became eligible for economic link provision from two to ten tonnes.

In both a feedback session to inform this report, and private correspondence, one PO in particular raised concerns about the impact on Scottish shellfish and demersal fishing vessels which operated outside of Scottish waters for the majority of the year. It was laid out that a requirement for these vessels to return to Scottish waters to land their catch had a disproportionate impact on these vessels. It was explained that, in some instances, the benefit was still returned to Scottish processors as the catch was often transported directly back to Scotland for processing, despite being landed elsewhere.