Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the remote electronic monitoring programme in delivering the programme's objectives for UK fisheries, and what steps they will take to ensure that key objectives are met in line with published timelines.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The remote electronic monitoring programme is still in the early stages of implementation. An evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the programme as well as how we met our key objectives. At this stage, the programme is too early in its testing to assess the evidence. The evaluation will report regularly throughout the programme, starting autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to incentivise participation in the early-adopter phase of installing remote electronic monitoring on fishing vessels in UK waters; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of those incentives; and what plans they have, if any, to expand incentives in the future.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has carefully considered how to incentivise fishing industry participation in the early adopter phases of the remote electronic monitoring programme. The programme is still in the early stages of implementation; it is therefore too early to draw upon how we can assess the effectiveness of those incentives.
Defra funds remote electronic monitoring equipment and installation for vessels that volunteer to be early adopters. Participation also gives the fishing industry an opportunity to shape the programme alongside resolving potential operational issues as we test them. An additional benefit to industry for early participation is that it may support applications by fishing operators to the Quota Allocation Mechanism, or for sustainability certification.
A volunteer vessel has been secured for the first early adopter project – deploying REM on large pelagic trawlers. This project is now underway. We are in the process of seeking further volunteers for the second early adopter project – deploying remote electronic monitoring on demersal seines (flyseines).
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to recommendations of Arijit De of the University of Manchester in his article 'Rattling the supply chains: creating a more sustainable way to do business', published on 22 April, to reduce traditional road freight and its emissions through the greater use of maritime transport.
Answered by Baroness Gustafsson - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Globalised supply chains remain a crucial part of our nation's economic growth. This government is actively working to strengthen the resilience of supply chains critical to the UK's economic security and growth, ensuring they remain secure, diverse, and sustainable in the face of global challenges. This includes work being done by the Department for Transport to encourage modal shift of freight from road to rail or water. We will consider the University of Manchester's report and its recommendations as part of our wider programme of work.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy for publishing information about enforcement actions for non-compliance with fisheries regulations in English waters; and what measures they are implementing, if any, to increase public access to information about enforcement activities, penalties and sanctions, for breach of those regulations.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is currently no requirement to publish enforcement statistics relating to non-compliance with fisheries regulations in English waters and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) does not routinely do so. It does, however, share details of specific court cases where there may be a wider public interest or where it is considered appropriate to do so, and it continues to engage with the fisheries sector on compliance matters directly, through established groups and networks, and through wider-reaching awareness campaigns.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that all catches are accurately recorded and accounted for in line with the bycatch objective under section 1(6)(b) of the Fisheries Act 2020; what assessment they have made of the adequacy of these measures in achieving this objective; and what plans they have to enhance monitoring of catches in the short term.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter, each UK Fisheries Administration is responsible for ensuring catches from their waters are reported accurately. In English waters, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) monitors all catches from commercially licensed fishing vessels, for vessels over 10 metres, information is recorded in logbooks whilst English vessels under 10 metres record their catches using a purpose-built mobile app or website. All catch data is submitted to the MMO to provide an accurate picture of how much fish we are taking from our seas. To ensure catch details are accounted for correctly, the MMO regularly conduct inspections of fishing vessels based upon a risk-based intelligence led marine enforcement model.
Defra has been reviewing the operation of the landing obligation as part of wider reforms to discards management in England. In 2025, these reforms include trialling changes to how we account for catches. This work aims to help ensure that catches are recorded and accounted for and contribute to the achievement of the bycatch objective.