Strategic Review of Seafish in 2021

As a public body, Seafish is required to undertake regular reviews. Over an 18 month period, the Seafish Board, in collaboration with the four UK Government administrations, carried out a review into the future of Seafish. The review was informed by consultation with the seafood industry. This was done through a series of workshops and online consultation during 2021 with our seafood industry stakeholders.

You can read more about the launch of the Strategic review and the consultation here: 

Our purpose at Seafish is to give the UK seafood sector the support it needs to thrive. The Strategic Review has given us a fantastic opportunity to ask industry and Government how we can work in partnership to achieve that aspiration. 

What are the main outcomes of the Strategic Review? 

We are pleased to say the Strategic Review has given us a strong steer and mandate going forward and a renewed sense that industry need our support now more than ever. 

There were three clear outcomes from the consultation: 

• We asked industry the fundamental question - Does Seafish need to exist at all? Industry and Government told us there is an overwhelming need for Seafish to exist and keep supporting the seafood industry to thrive.
• Our current work programme was widely and positively endorsed, and we got a clear steer on the highest priorities for industry right now. We have listened and we are focusing our efforts, making sure our resources are directed to deliver with impact on the issues that matter most.
• Industry acknowledged that, to move forward with purpose and ambition, we need to be funded to deliver the support they need. This means we will be working with Government to reform the Seafish levy.

How will the Strategic Review outcomes be taken forward? 

The Seafish Board has produced a list of recommendations that will help us meet the needs of the seafood industry and Government. 

The recommendations cover:

• Our function (‘What’ Seafish will deliver based on industry priorities); 
• Our form (‘How’ Seafish will deliver on our priorities, engage with stakeholders across the UK and ensure we have the right governance arrangements in place);
• Our funding (ensuring Seafish is financially viable into the future).  

Our function – what the industry told us

Industry recognised that we live in times of resource scarcity and that Seafish is currently spread too thin. They urged us to be more focused on key priorities. This would ensure we can ‘deliver with impact’ and have the discipline and resolve to resist pursuing activities where we can’t add sufficient value, or where other agencies are better placed to deliver. 
 
Through the consultation, the seafood industry also told us there are six areas they want more of our support with:  

1. Workforce issues - They want our help to access and support a safe and skilled workforce.
2. Reputation - The seafood industry is increasingly responding to a range of societal and environmental challenges. Whether that be on the impacts of fishing on the marine environment, marine pollution, microplastics, human rights and ethical issues, animal welfare issues or the environmental credentials of seafood. They have asked us to do even more to support them in managing these challenges. 
3. Climate change - Industry need our help to support them in adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change and, where possible, reduce the industry’s carbon footprint. 
4. International Trade - Our stakeholders are looking for support in helping them address trading challenges whether that be navigating regulatory changes, exploring new markets, or fostering good relations between trading countries.
5. Insight and Innovation - Industry value the data, analysis, research and advice that we provide which supports them in making good business decisions. 
6. Fisheries Management - Our work in facilitating collaboration between industry, government and scientists to improve fisheries management outcomes is valued and even more important as we find our way as an Independent Coastal State.

Our Function – Recommendations:

• As a result of the demand for more focus on the issues above, we are making immediate changes to some of our existing activities. The most significant change will be the stopping of consumer marketing activity through Love Seafood. 
• Our stakeholders made it clear they want more support on industry reputation, and that we do not have sufficient resources to deliver consumer marketing with the required, wider impact. The Board therefore had a difficult decision to make, to address this feedback as part of the recommendations. 
• To support this work, we increase our resource and investment to research the reputation issues that matter. This will build the evidence base that can support the industry. We will communicate our reputation work to the industry to ensure it lands with measured impact.
• We will also embed these following Key Principles relating to our function to ensure: 
• We only use levy funds to deliver products and services where there is a clear value proposition to the UK seafood supply chain.  
• We secure financial support when asked to deliver a service or support projects on behalf of government. Particularly when the function we are being asked to deliver is the statutory responsibility of another organisation. 
• We will proactively access government grant programmes or third-party funding opportunities that are aligned to the delivery of its core functions. 

Our form – what the industry told us

The industry told us they value our engagement across the UK and it was clear that there is an opportunity to build on existing strong relationships with the devolved administrations. 

Our form – Recommendations:

Implementing the findings of the Strategic Review will address:

• Outdated governance arrangements by updating our Framework Agreement and moving our corporate plan cycle from 3 years to 5 years. 
• Deliver increased partnership opportunities with the four UK administrations, and;
• Consolidate Seafish’s position as the only organisation working across the seafood supply chain and across the UK. We will ensure that the work of our ‘central teams’ is communicated locally and that our staff around the UK work hard to connect local stakeholders to the support that matters most to them. 

We will aim to have these recommendations in place for our next corporate plan which we will publish in April 2023. 

Our funding – what the industry told us

Our industry and Government stakeholders recognised that the system, rates and the approach to collecting the Seafish levy has not changed in 20 years and needs reform.   Stakeholders told us they want a fair approach. 

Our funding – Recommendations:

We will ask the Government to:

• Amend legislation to create a more agile and responsive system.
• Adjust levy rates where appropriate to ensure the levy collected can support the delivery of our priorities and commitments.
• Review inclusion of all product forms and species within the remit of the levy to achieve a fair and inclusive levy system. 

This will all need legislative changes which we expect to take several years to complete. However, we will start this process in 2022. 

What happens next? 

As we move into the last year of the current corporate plan, the package of recommendations set out the future direction for Seafish so we can continue to support the UK seafood industry to thrive.

Subject to ministerial approval from across the four administrations, we will start to implement the recommendations made by the Seafish Board. This will be a priority for us over the next 12 months and will support the development of our 2023-2028 Corporate Plan.

We will continue to engage with the seafood industry and the four Government administrations to explore how and when we will deliver the recommendations. These will be shared in more detail later in 2022. 

More Information

Get in touch with seafish@seafish.co.uk.