Our latest post-Brexit stocktake examines the shift from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy to the UK’s domestic framework established by the Fisheries Act 2020. While the new legislation provides a coherent enabling framework, its operation has been uneven and characterised by significant implementation gaps.

Here, we explore how the discretionary nature of new sustainability duties and the slow delivery of Fisheries Management Plans are undermining the UK’s marine ambitions and outline the urgent steps needed to strengthen legal accountability, standardise monitoring and establish the UK as a credible, scientifically grounded coastal state.

This stocktake was authored by Bernadette Butfield, marine law and policy specialist at the RSPB.