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The Royal Navy does not have enough ships to police the UK's fisheries after Brexit, its former head has said.

The comments by Lord West of Spithead, the former First Sea Lord, came in a house of Lords debate about a European Union Committee Report into implementation and enforcement of EU Landing Obligations, an EU policy which seeks to curb the controversial discarding of fish.

Lord Teverson said he supported "the Government entirely in what I hope is their intention to keep this policy, but we have to make sure that we have a way to implement it".

However, Lord West said: "We have insufficient ships within our fishery protection squadron to carry out enforcement at the level he is talking about"

Lord Thrulow added: "There is no effective means of policing agreed and the fisheries protection fleet needs beefing up; as the noble Lord, Lord West of Spithead, said earlier, the Royal Navy is unlikely to come to its assistance as it too is short of ships.

"The only real motivation for the fishing fleets, ours and the continental ones, are from the personal conservation interest of the skippers and the desire to obey the law. However, I am sure there is no motivation for foreign boats in UK waters, particularly in the present circumstances.

"After leaving the EU, we have a great opportunity for our fisheries. We must use it; it is hugely valuable, and it is ours. It is not a cheap bargaining chip to be used in wider trade negotiations without a great deal of care.

"Our rivals in those negotiations will play down the importance to their fleets, but let us not be fooled: it is a negotiation, it is critical to them and they want as much of the share of our waters as they can have. The price for sharing our seas must be very high.

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"Their boats and their gear, such as the remote monitoring that we have heard about, must all meet UK standards. I ask the Minister to ensure that these are introduced, particularly with regard to remote monitoring, as soon as possible."