Fisheries Act 2020
Fisheries Act 2020
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Overview of the Act
Reproduced verbatim from the Explanatory Notes published with the Act on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). Explanatory Notes are prepared by the responsible government department and are not part of the Act.
The Fisheries Act (the Act) provides the legal framework for the United Kingdom to operate as an independent coastal state under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) after the UK has left the Common Fisheries Policy (the CFP) at the end of the Transition Period at 11pm on 31 December 2020. The Act creates common approaches to fisheries management between the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the "Secretary of State") and the Devolved Administrations, known collectively as the Fisheries Administrations, and makes reforms to fisheries management across the UK. It also confers additional powers on the Marine Management Organisation ("the MMO") to improve the regulation of fishing and the marine environment in the UK and beyond.
Type: UK Public General Act
Year and chapter: 2020 c. 22
Royal Assent: 2020-11-23
Last ingested: 2026-06-12 from legislation.gov.uk. Acts commence section by section — check the official text for commencement orders.