Scottish fishing industry warns UK against slipping back into EU rules
The warning comes in the wake of widespread dissatisfaction with the UK‑EU fisheries settlement, which allows continued EU fleet access to UK waters until 2038.
The Scottish fishing industry has voiced serious concerns over the proposed legislation on plant and animal product trade checks, warning that the deal could risk drawing the UK back into being influenced by the EU.
In a letter to EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) warned that recent discussions suggest the UK‑EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement may extend beyond food safety to cover technical barriers to trade, potentially widening its scope into areas affecting fisheries governance.
The SPS Agreement is a negotiated framework aiming to reduce agri-food trade barriers by aligning the UK’s food safety, animal, and plant health regulations with the EU. It seeks to remove most certificates, physical inspections, and veterinary checks, easing trade costs for products like dairy, meat, and plants.
The point of the UK-EU reset is to remove the barriers that have led thousands of businesses to stop exporting to the EU, and to reduce supermarket prices.
However, Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the SFF, said ministers’ recent comments had heightened fears that SPS Agreement could lead to undermining the UK’s recent changes to regulatory autonomy in the fishing sector.
“One of the key benefits of Brexit for the fishing sector has been the ability to manage and conserve our own waters,” she said.
“This autonomy must not be compromised through sectoral alignment or broader trade negotiations.”
The warning comes in the wake of widespread dissatisfaction with changes to the UK‑EU fisheries settlement announced last year that allows continued EU fleet access to UK waters until 2038.
The SFF described the £360 million UK Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund announced alongside the deal as “limited compensation” against estimated losses, arguing that EU fleets could take fish worth around £6 billion from UK waters over the 12-year period.
The SFF also criticised the distribution of the fund under the Barnett Formula, which would see Scotland — home to around 60–70 per cent of the UK fishing industry — receive only roughly 8 per cent of the funding.
Fishing leaders are now calling for explicit government assurances that the SPS Agreement will not touch fisheries management and that the UK will remain outside EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), ensuring that full regulatory control over domestic waters will be preserved.
A UK government spokesperson insisted the UK is no longer part of the CPF - the EU’s framework for managing fisheries and aquaculture across member states’ waters.
“We set our own rules, and that is not changing,” the spokesperson added.
“At the UK‑EU Summit in May, we secured a 12-year agreement worth £80 million a year to our fleet, guaranteeing full control over our waters. We are now focused on delivering an SPS deal to add £5.1 billion annually to the economy by cutting red tape for our fishing, food and farming sectors, helping them grow and export to our largest market.”
Officials said the SPS Agreement would simplify exports by removing the need for Export Health Certificates — saving up to £200 per consignment — and ending requirements for extensive paperwork and border checks, benefiting fish exporters across the UK while maintaining quota uplifts secured under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
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