Michael Foster MP for Hastings and Rye this week expressed his delight that the Judicial Review into local fishing quotas was now to proceed. 

The application to the High Court challenging DEFRA’s allocation of quota to the under 10 metre sector (the small boats) was successful at the first hurdle when the Court accepted that there was an arguable case. 

“The allocation whereby 50% of the industry, that is to say those in the smaller boats, received 3% of the quota, whereas 50% of the industry, that is to say those in the big boats, get 96% of the quota is so manifestly wrong that it should not have taken legal proceedings to state the obvious,” said the MP.

The MP, who is himself a lawyer, told the Minister and officials earlier in the year that it was more than likely that the legal action would succeed although Judicial Reviews are by no means an easy route. 

“To win a Judicial Review one has to prove that there is an arguable case and then win the argument.  The test is a very high one and is based on what is known as the Wednesbury principle; a case in which the Court made clear that simply disagreeing with the administrative authority is not enough and has to show that the decision was perverse, that is to say a decision that no reasonable Tribunal could have made.  The fact that the Court has said that in this case that test may be met highlights just how wrong the Department have been over so many years.  What’s sad is that not just the Government but every opposition front bench have refused to challenge that inequity.

“There are lots of warm words of support but what’s needed is a re-distribution of what is available.  We’re not asking that the small fishermen get 50%- just enough to make a living,” said the MP.

Following the decision the MP has contacted the Minister again to ask him to take alternative legal advice to that offered by the Department.