I have had a number of urgent enquiries from both new entrant and historic right holder appellants who had successfully appealed for hake trawl fishing rights about applying for their section 13 fishing permits.
They are being told by DFFE that they can only apply in January 2024 for their permits. Is that correct? If it is, it could be a hollow victory as many have effectively run out of cash having been surviving for the past 2 years on savings.
A study of the hake trawl rights allocation letter is revealing. Paragraph 3 of the letter states clearly that the right commences on the signature date of the letter - ie 5 October 2023.
"Duration of Right
3.1 The right is allocated from date of signature hereof and terminating on 28 February 2038."
The right accordingly commenced immediately on 5 October 2023. The section 13 permits must accordingly be processed and issued to give effect to that right. To refuse to do so would be unlawful.
Incidentally, it is unclear what possessed this Minister to allocate these fishing rights as being valid until 28 February 2038! That is 2 months into the 2038 fishing season! What happens for the remaining 10 months of the 2038 fishing season?
And a final note on the rights allocation letter. It is issued subject a list of conditions set out in paragraph 6. The conditions listed in paragraphs 6.2.1, 6.2.3, 6.2.4, 6.2.5 and 6.2.6 are noteworthy as they are simply invalid as the Minister does not have any the authority under section 18 to issue fishing rights subject to these conditions!
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