Cumbria shellfish producers want the UK to adopt EU arrangements instead of its own and / or to raise its standards to those of the EU.
Who knew that the way the EU does things could be more beneficial to UK producers - and, in this case, shellfish consumers - than the way the UK does them?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-56255212
Interesting snippets below:
"Steve Manning, who fishes from Flookburgh, said the UK could use EU testing regimes instead.
"We think they do it probably on a daily basis whereas our results are taken over 12 month to two-year periods," he said.
Heavy rainfall and farm muck spreading washed contaminants into Morecambe Bay, bringing down the whole year's classification, he said.
Sarah Horsfall from the Shellfish Association of Great Britain said EU countries classified their waters "very differently" from the UK.
"If other countries can do it a different way, which doesn't cause any issue under the legislation, that allows their industry to operate in a more flexible way, then why shouldn't we do it?" she said.
...
Pressure could be put on the government to clean up UK coastal waters to "get them into a classification A", Mr Manning said.
"Everybody else seems to be able to do it except the UK," he said."