Criteria for Responsible Fishing Ports Scheme shared for public consultation

Responsible Sourcing

Seafish, the public body that supports the £10bn UK seafood industry, has today (Wednesday 5 February) launched a public consultation on the Responsible Fishing Ports Scheme (RFPS) which has been updated to apply to all UK fishing ports.

The RFPS is a voluntary programme developed to promote and encourage responsible operating practices within UK fishing ports and harbours, to give greater assurance and transparency to buyers and users of seafood landed in the UK. It is independently audited and accreditation allows ports to demonstrate that they follow good practice across five core areas:

• Food Safety and Structural Integrity, 
• Port and the Working Environment, 
• Care for the Environment, 
• Care of the Catch, and 
• Traceability.

The first phase of developing the standard criteria was completed and approved in 2018, enabling large ports to be certified by the RFPS, with Peterhead Port being the first to achieve certification in 2019. The scheme closed a certification gap in the seafood supply chain, making the UK a world leader in responsible sourcing practices with certification schemes available to cover the UK catch from sea to plate.

Seafish has continued to work closely with members of the UK seafood supply chain to develop a draft of the standard that’s applicable for all ports i.e. one standard covering both large and small ports. Following a series of pilot audits on small ports, the RFPS standard has been updated and it can now be applied to all sizes of UK fishing ports.

Marcus Jacklin, Industry Issues and Insight at Seafish said: “We’re extremely pleased to share for public consultation, the draft standard of the Responsible Fishing Ports Scheme. We’ve worked closely with industry on the criteria development process to make the scheme applicable for all UK ports. I’d encourage all interested stakeholders to take the opportunity to review the standard and submit any feedback now before the standard is finalised and released.”

The public consultation will run until Wednesday 8 April 2020.

A copy of the draft standard and the feedback form are available to download from our RFPS Public Consultation webpage.