A brief exchange in the House of Commons exposed an awkward fact about one of Britain’s newest commercial fisheries.
Torcuil Crichton, the Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, asked why Angus Campbell, a fisherman from Harris who held Scotland’s only commercial bluefin tuna authorisation in 2025, had been refused one for 2026. Campbell had invested in specialist equipment and established a route to market for tuna caught west of the Hebrides. Two applications were submitted from Scotland this year. Neither succeeded.
The final allocation went to 29 vessels administered in England and one from Jersey. None went to Scotland, Wales or Guernsey. Those successful vessels are permitted to target bluefin tuna throughout English, Welsh and Scottish waters. No Scottish-licensed vessel has the same permission.
The precise wording matters. These are not “English licences for Scottish waters” in the conventional sense. They are UK commercial bluefin tuna authorisations attached to vessels licensed through the different fisheries administrations. Yet the practical result is exactly as described: vessels based in English ports may catch and land bluefin tuna found in Scottish waters, while no vessel licensed in Scotland may target them commercially during the 2026 season.
The Marine Management Organisation received 155 applications for 30 authorisations. England accounted for 133 applications, Wales ten, Jersey six, Guernsey four and Scotland two.
Before assessment, the MMO removed information identifying the applicants, vessels and their locations. A panel then examined each application against eight pass-or-fail questions covering fish welfare, equipment, handling, quota management, experience and the economic and social benefits proposed for coastal communities.
Sixty-six applications passed. Of those, 63 were administered in England and three in Jersey. Both Scottish applications were rejected before the random ballot took place. The final ballot awarded 29 authorisations to England and one to Jersey.
This was therefore not simply a case of two Scottish fishermen being unlucky in a draw. Neither was allowed into it.
The published documents do not disclose why the Scottish applications failed. Without the applications, panel notes or individual reasons, it is impossible to determine whether the assessment was correct. An established fishing history cannot automatically entitle an applicant to a scarce public resource, and previous participation does not prove that every section of a later application met the stated requirements.
The Government’s position is that the process was fair and transparent. Fisheries Minister Stephen Morgan told the Commons that authorisations last for one year, do not renew automatically and provide no guarantee of future quota. He said officials would continue working with Scotland and the other fisheries administrations to gather evidence about the approach.
That answer explains the rules. It does not resolve the question raised by the outcome.
The application process specifically required fishermen to demonstrate benefits to coastal communities. Applicants had to identify at least five benefits connected with employment, income, skills, supply chains or community value. At the same time, the assessors were prevented from knowing where the applicant or vessel was based.
Anonymisation can protect applicants against favouritism. It also prevents the panel from considering whether the national distribution of licences bears any relationship to the waters in which the fish are found or the communities expected to benefit. There was no Scottish allocation, regional minimum or geographical weighting. Once applicants passed the first stage, the final decision was made by random ballot.
The system was designed so that every authorisation could, in principle, be concentrated in one part of the country. Its first full result came close.
There is also a question for the Scottish Government. The MMO’s published report says that all UK fisheries administrations were invited to participate in the assessment panel, but only England and Jersey provided representatives. The public document does not explain why Scotland was absent. The application process was designed and run by the MMO on behalf of the UK Government, but Scottish ministers cannot be treated as wholly detached from an arrangement in which their fisheries administration was invited to take part.
Bluefin tuna have returned to British waters after decades of depletion. The UK’s annual international quota has risen from roughly 66 tonnes in 2025 to 230.56 tonnes for each year from 2026 to 2028. Of the 2026 allocation, 120 tonnes have been assigned to the commercial rod-and-reel fishery. Thirty vessels may land up to four tonnes each between 13 July and 31 December.
The remaining quota is not simply an unused stock that can automatically be handed to another fleet. The UK fishing plan reserves amounts for accidental commercial bycatch, estimated mortality from recreational catch-and-release fishing, scientific work and tagging programmes. Crichton nevertheless asked ministers to consider a further licensing round or another means of providing access from the quota not assigned to the present commercial authorisations. The minister did not commit to one.
The economic opportunity is real. An evaluation commissioned for Defra estimated that the 2024 commercial bluefin fishery produced £392,007 in direct economic activity and £713,000 when indirect effects were included. The report concluded that investment in boats, processing, markets and coastal supply chains could increase the value considerably as the fishery develops.
For a remote island community, one authorisation can support more than the vessel that holds it. Tuna must be landed, handled, cooled, transported and sold. A developing Hebridean fishery could create work around ports, merchants, tourism, specialist angling and export. These are precisely the benefits the application form asked fishermen to describe.
A regional allocation should not be awarded merely because a vessel is Scottish. Applicants must be capable, safe and commercially prepared. Nor should an English vessel be excluded from a UK fishery simply because it is registered in England.
The unresolved issue is whether a UK-wide public resource should be distributed through a process that takes no account of regional access after the minimum criteria have been met. A ballot may be procedurally neutral while producing an outcome that leaves the communities nearest an emerging fishery without any commercial participation.
The Government has established that Campbell had no automatic right to retain his authorisation. It has not explained why demonstrated experience counted for no more than a first-time application, why neither Scottish bid met the pass standard, why Scotland supplied no representative to the assessment panel, or why no safeguard existed against the entire Scottish fleet being excluded.
For 2026, the position is plain. Bluefin tuna may be caught commercially in Scottish waters, but not by a single Scottish-licensed vessel.
The process may have followed its rules. The rules still require an explanation.
Sources
UK Parliament, Tuna Fishing Licences, House of Commons, 9 July 2026:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-07-09/debates/F7537B35-3F7A-4E35-A4C4-D49832036F4A/TunaFishingLicences
Marine Management Organisation, Outcomes from the 2026 UK Bluefin Tuna Commercial Application Process:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a4e44f6895317eadc3545ba/2026_UK_Commercial_BFT_list.pdf
Marine Management Organisation, Bluefin Tuna Commercial Fishery Within UK Waters:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bluefin-tuna-bft-commercial-fishery-within-uk-waters
Marine Management Organisation, UK’s Growing Bluefin Tuna Fishery Opens for 2026, 9 July 2026:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-growing-bluefin-tuna-fishery-opens-for-2026
Marine Management Organisation, Guidance Supporting UK BFT Commercial Applications:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d4ef2b826d774e7b263e6d/Guidance_supporting_BFT_2026_applications.pdf
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, UK Bluefin Tuna Fishing Plan for 2026:
https://www.iccat.int/Documents/Meetings/Docs/2026/reports/2026_PA2_ENG.pdf
ABPmer, Bluefin Tuna: What Is the Impact of UK Quota Distribution?, 26 August 2025:
https://www.abpmer.co.uk/blog/bluefin-tuna-what-is-the-impact-of-uk-quota-allocations/
