The Labour Government has made good its promise to Britain’s 3 million anglers to update and overhaul our fisheries legislation when it announced in the Queen’s Speech that the long awaited Marine Bill was to be included in this years legislative programme.

The Marine Bill will establish Marine Conservation zones to protect species and habitats from exploitation and to allow for better recruitment of many fish species. It will set up a Marine Management Organisation to regulate marine activities and help enforce laws to protect the marine environment. The Marine Bill is also the vehicle by which much of the 2001 Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review will be implemented. This will include new by-laws creating powers to tackle fish removals and thefts.

We now have the chance to do something to protect our fisheries and to give the police and the Environment Agency real powers to clamp down on those who remove fish for either the pot or for private gain. The current hotch potch of fishery by-laws are unintelligible and unenforceable and the Environment Agency are starting work on a national catch and release by-law which I want to see implemented as soon as possible. Catch and release must become the norm in freshwater with exceptions available in clearly defined circumstances such as put and take trout fisheries.

In recent weeks I’ve come down firmly on the side of BASC in the debate over the use of battery cages for gamebirds. I have written to DEFRA Minister Huw Irranca-Davies to press him to go further than the Farm Animal Welfare Council’s (FAWC) report into the welfare of famed gamebirds and to introduce an end to the use of laying cages.

His predecessor Jeff Rooker was minded to phase out the use of laying cages in the UK due to the poor standards of animal welfare that occur with the use of laying cages compared with the traditional pens which happily are still used by the majority of game farms.

There is a powerful lobby building against the use of cages supported by BASC and the RSPCA. I have sent the Minister a briefing from BASC which suggests a way forward with a Code of Practice which would specify a minimum standard of 1 square metre per pheasant and 0.5 square metres per partridge with the stock moved to large flock pens outside the breeding season.

In my view BASC represents the sensible and responsible voice of British shooting. Demonstrating our care for the environment, the link between shooting and food, and a willingness to keep our own house in order is how we best protect game shooting in the current climate.

Finally, it’s not been all unremitting hard work for yours truly as I did find time to indulge in a sport of fishing with MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Angling Group and enjoyed a morning’s rough shooting in the Berkshire countryside with TV chef Mike Robinson. I took MPs Jon Cruddas (Lab) and Charles Walker (Con) to the beautiful Lower Itchen Fishery for a spot of winter grayling fishing. We landed some lovely fish including several specimens over 2lbs along with the obligatory out of season trout and some cracking roach and chub.

Pictures of me shooting pheasants triggered a few intemperate letters and emails from the animal rights lobby. Readers might be interested in my response which is reproduced below:

“Thank you for your recent communication expressing your views on my pheasant shoot with Mike Robinson the TV Chef.

“I am sorry you don’t approve but I can assure you that the pheasants were all plucked, cooked, and eaten, making the entire exercise sustainable. They were very tasty!

“Like every other Labour MP I was elected on a manifesto which supports shooting and fishing so you shouldn’t be so surprised if some of us actually take part in both sports.

“My advice to anyone who objects to shooting game for food and sport is not to do it. We have no plans to make either shooting or fishing compulsory.”

First Published in ‘Tackle and Guns’ as Commons Man