Post-Brexit fisheries policy and marine conservation in England and Scotland: Trajectories towards policy coherence and fisher wellbeing

This article presents a comparative study into what governance-contextual factors shaped trajectories towards policy coherence in two marine policymaking processes in England and Scotland: post-Brexit fisheries policy and the contemporary debates over the introduction of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), a new category of MPA. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study using official documentation and document-guided, semi-structured interviews which were interpreted through established, state-of-the-art analytical frameworks grounded in recent conceptual literature. Our analysis brought to light different dynamics driving policy outcomes in each country. Firstly, it became evident from developments in Scotland that, even in the absence of one integrated marine policy deliberation process, overarching objectives at the political level can ensure coherence in policy outcome. Secondly, in the absence of strong overarching objectives, developments in England demonstrated how local interest groups can influence policy processes towards coherent outcomes. In the light of calls for a reorientation of fisheries policy towards more holistic wellbeing objectives, we argue that such objectives can be brought about through different pathways, but that trade-offs between objectives can exist in practice.