Business Secretary Lord Mandelson will today make the first compensation payments under the new scheme for former Icelandic-water trawlermen who lost their livelihoods following the Cod Wars of the 1970s.
Lord Mandelson will hand over cheques to the first people to benefit during a visit to Hull. The scheme is expected to benefit around 1000 former trawlermen, who will receive additional payments totalling between £5-10 million
Over the coming weeks many more trawlermen who fished in Icelandic waters before the Cod Wars prevented them from doing so and who are eligible for additional compensation under the scheme will start to receive their payments.
Secretary of State for Business, Lord Mandelson said:
“I’m pleased to be able to start this new scheme off by meeting some of the people who will benefit from further compensation.
“Distant water trawling is one of the most arduous and hazardous of occupations. These men lost their livelihoods through no fault of their own and deserve just treatment.
“The new scheme is a much fairer deal and means that the group of trawlermen that received unreasonably low payments under the previous scheme – around one in six – will now receive additional compensation.”
Michael Neve, a former trawlerman who spent 20 years at sea and who benefited from the scheme said:
“I know this final payment will be gratefully received amongst the fishermen, like me, who are getting this final payment.
“It will give a bit of support to the men who worked in this once great fishing community and the hazardous conditions of deep sea fishing who are now entering their twilight years.”
So far, around 2,500 claims under the new scheme have been received, of which around half of these should be processed by Christmas.
The new payments will be based on aggregate service on vessels that fished in Icelandic waters, rather than the previous scheme which was based on continuous service.
Former trawlermen from Hull, Grimsby, Aberdeen and Fleetwood will benefit from the scheme and the cut-off date for applications under the new scheme is 30 April 2010.
For more information call the dedicated helpline on 0845 604 3477 or visit www.bis.gov.uk.
Notes to Editors
The origins of the trawlermen scheme lie in the collapse of the UK distant water fishing industry in the wake of the ‘Cod Wars’ during the 1970s. These fishing disputes between the UK and Iceland were brought to an end by an agreement in 1976 whereby the UK recognised an exclusion zone around Iceland, with the result that many UK distant water trawlermen lost their livelihoods in the following years.The Department for Employment paid £14 million to 9,000 trawlermen under an ex-gratia scheme between 1993 and 1995. However, the scheme was criticised because payments were made on the basis of length of service for each employer. A second compensation scheme ran between October 2000 and October 2002. This calculated payments depending on the length of each trawlermen’s continuous service in the Icelandic waters fishing industry. Under this scheme, a further £43 million was paid to 4,400 former trawlermen or their dependents.In 2007 the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended the Government review the criteria and rules of the 2000-02 scheme. She found in particular that the “breaks rule” in that scheme resulted in some trawlermen with long careers in the industry receiving smaller payments than they might reasonably have expected. The Government therefore launched a further scheme on 31 July 2009, which calculates payments for each trawlerman on the basis of his aggregate service on vessels that fished in Icelandic waters, in the last twenty years of his fishing career. Where this calculation produces a higher payment than that already made under the previous schemes, the Government will pay the difference. We will not be claiming payments back where the reverse is the case. We expect around one in six claimants to receive ‘top up’ payments under the new scheme. 34 new vessels have been nominated for addition to the list of those accepted as vessels that fished within the exclusion zone. Claims from people that served on these vessels will be processed once the list has been finalised.
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
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