Speeches by Eagle.

“This is the EU-UK negotiations, not some of the rest of it. They were done under the terms of the trade and co-operation agreement, where there is a technical aspect to that.”

“We do what we can to interrogate what the situation is before ICES comes up with its calculations. Is it in July? It normally comes up with its calculations in July and we have a lot of contact with it before that. This year has been very challenging all round, because of the quota cuts, some of which are very difficul…”

“It is not being snuck out on the last day before Christmas. It is not. There are a great number of reports across Government that have to be got out. There is the infamous No. 10 grid that you may remember from previous Administrations. We have to get the sequencing of all Government announcements right. I do not think…”

“We are very open to seeing how we can improve the way that those structures, which are reasonably new, work going forward.”

“I suspect that an outcome that pleases nobody is probably the best we can do in some of those circumstances.”

“You are right.”

“We have had it since 31 October.”

“It was 48%, was it? I am trying to remember.”

“I understand your frustration. That was the advice on that particular question, but there were some other options ICES put on the table for those fisheries, which were the ones that we took up. I do not know whether officials want to go into more technical detail about it. The advice for zero catch was one option, but …”

“DEFRA is extremely good at that, I might add. I have discovered that since I got here.”

“First, I hope that Bridlington will be aware that it has a champion in Government when it comes to its shellfish industry. I am more than happy to hear from them if they have ideas they want to put past me. In terms of the science, we are obligated to act on scientific advice, so that we can ensure that fishing is done…”

“Is it still up there? The octopus haven’t got there yet?”

“Of course. How long will it take me to get up there? You will be the expert.”

“I have, yes. I have done a little bit of that myself, albeit not in Brixham, just a bit further down the coast. I do not disagree with you at all. It is really important, from a policy point of view, but also from a ministerial point of view, to go and listen to the people on the ground and see precisely the issues tha…”

“It is quite difficult to undo what has come before. Well, it is impossible to undo what has come before, and we have three to five-year schemes that do not run out, so by definition you have to run these things in parallel. If we can get the approach right, and with the fact that the Batters review ought to be looked a…”

“We are considering all that at the moment. It is a very complex sort of landscape, given the way that food distribution now works. It has rather moved away from local distributions, so it is a question of how we can see what can be done much more locally. It is more difficult than I had hoped, simply because of the way…”

“Money is tight everywhere. I am not just going to sit here and say, “Yes, we have lots of money that we can throw at this.” On your point about whether the Groceries Code Adjudicator should move to DEFRA or merge, we would be open to that. That is a machinery of government change. It currently sits in the Department fo…”

“To do what, though?”

“I am happy to address some of the points that have been raised. I welcome that the official Opposition are broadly supportive of this system, and I will come to their questions in a minute. The Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton, sounded like she was in favour on principle but n…”

“I know that the responsible Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East, has met the industry, and that workshops have been held over recent weeks to urgently and carefully identify options that address the issues that the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton raises. We all need to find positive ways forw…”