Brexit hasn’t quadrupled the cost of fuel for fishing boats

A post on Facebook claims that, following Brexit, UK fishing crews “will” see the price of fuel for their boats more than quadruple due to the removal of EU subsidies. 

The post is a screenshot of a tweet from October 2020, before the end of the Brexit transition period.

HMRC told us that the claim was incorrect and it was not aware of any reason for an increase in fuel prices, though it added that “fuel prices are obviously currently high”. It added that it has always administered marine voyages relief, although before Brexit it was an EU requirement to do so.

Fishers can still claim full fuel duty relief on fuels like petrol, as they did before Brexit, provided they have an eligible vessel and voyage. Boats which use “red diesel” (gas oil that has been chemically marked and dyed to show that it already has a reduced rate of fuel duty) can continue to use the same fuel, and claim back the duty. 

The guidance from the UK government setting out the rules around tax relief and red diesel has been updated since Brexit, but earlier versions archived online show that the sections relevant to the claims the post makes about fuel duty relief have not materially changed. 

Andy Forse, research fellow at the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Blue Governance, told Full Fact: “If the cost of fuel for the UK fleet had more than quadrupled overnight, as the post suggests, then it would be the single biggest impact to have hit them and likely would have made fishing commercially unviable in this country in perpetuity.” 

Mr Forse said the topic of fuel subsidies “hasn’t ever featured as an issue” in discussions around Brexit and fishing, adding: “If the [Facebook] post was even close to reality then it would have been central to the debate.”