In his first visit over a year and due to the pandemic, Ambassador Whittingham returned to Honduras to address top UK priorities, including prosperity, climate change, human rights and the battle against Covid-19.

In the Bay Islands Ambassador Whittingham met with British citizens, representatives of local communities and executives from the Prospera development initiative. He welcomed the reactivation of tourism and efforts from the islanders to create prosperity and battle the impacts of the pandemic.

During his visit to Tegucigalpa, Ambassador Whittingham also looked to progress UK objectives towards COP26, the global climate change conference to be held in Glasgow in November this year. The Ambassador met with the Secretary of Environment, Liliam Rivera Hipp, and congratulated Honduras for increasing its ambitions toward emissions reductions.

During his meeting with Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Isaias Barahona, Ambassador Whittingham stressed the unwavering UK commitment to continue fighting Covid-19 by suppling vaccines to those in need. The UK will give five million doses of vaccines to COVAX, of which Honduras is beneficiary. The UK has pledged to donate 100 million vaccines overseas by June 2022, 80 million of which will go to this mechanism.

Finally, Ambassador Whittingham met with the private sector, justice operators, and civil society to address the critical need of tackling corruption in order to boost prosperity and attract investments. The Ambassador also stressed that a free press is a much needed resource in all societies to encourage transparency, and called for protection of journalists.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and fellow UK Fisheries Administrations (UKFAs) have closed the fishery in UK waters from 15 August until 4 October 2021 to all over-10m vessels. In EU waters of VIId, the closure applies to all UK vessels, including those under 10m.

The closure follows scientific advice and is designed to protect spawning and sustain stocks.

Alongside this closure, the sea area south of parallel 49°42’ N in ICES area VIId known as the Bay of Seine will be closed to scallop fishing by UK vessels from 15 August until 18 October 2021. France already has similar measures in its waters for its scallop fleet.

Fishing licences for UK and EU vessels have been varied to enact the closure, which was requested by representatives of the UK scallop industry to help conserve stocks in the area.

The move follows a four-year survey by Cefas that demonstrated that king scallops in sea area VIId have been fished at close to unsustainable levels.

The MMO and UKFAs are committed to continuing to work with scientists and industry to ensure fisheries are managed to a level where stocks are healthy and fished sustainably; the marine environment is protected; and economic return for fishers is supported without impacting stock sustainability and environmental protections.