NEW FISHERIES LAWS WILL AFFECT YOU - Latest Update & SFCA Final Response

The consultation period on the proposals for a Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill runs up to 24th February - see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/12/1494325/43255 . 

In this link you will find the final reply to the consultation document from the Scottish Federation for Coarse angling. We hope that you or your club will have submitted a response too - the more coarse anglers speak up, the greater are our chances of having an influence on what goes into the legislation.

This is not the end of the process. Nor, to quote a certain former MP for Perth, is it the beginning of the end: it is the end of the beginning.

Following the public consultation, a Bill will be drafted, and we expect this will be put before the Scottish Parliament in June 06. Between then and around Jan 07 the Bill will make its passage through the Parliament, and during this period we can all have an impact by writing to MSPs and political parties setting out our point of view. Perhaps the key part of that process will be the Committee stage, where proposed legislation receives line-by-line consideration from a small group of MSPs. SFCA will be submitting written evidence to the Committee and will also seek to be given the opportunity to present oral evidence so that we can put our point of view across as effectively as possible.  

When the text of the Bill is published we’ll put up links on this site, and offer some comments that might help inform your lobbying of MSPs. In the meantime, as always, if you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch with me at ron.woods@ntlworld.com

Many thanks

Ron Woods

SFCA Policy Officer

20 February 2006