ABSTRACT
In leaving the EU, the UK is now free to regulate its fisheries outside of the common fisheries policy. This chapter introduces the key provisions of the Fisheries Act 2020 – the key piece of UK fisheries legislation in a post-Brexit world. It then explains the concept of devolution in the UK and follows with a brief analysis of the effect of the Fisheries Act on the devolved powers in the UK – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It concludes that while the Fisheries Act provides for the relevant ministers in the devolved administrations to regulate fisheries, it is the UK Government that enters into fishing negotiations with the EU and other actors, with fishing opportunities as a result of those negotiations then divided up among the four nations of the UK. In addition, loss of EU market access apart from in Northern Ireland has been detrimental to the fishing industry across the UK.
