Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many queen honeybees have been imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland since 2021.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. When the imports arrive in NI they are cleared by NI officials. Great Britain (GB) officials do not have access to the systems used by NI so we do not have figures for how many queen honeybees have been imported into NI. Once the imports have been cleared by NI officials, the bees can be moved to GB without any further controls so information about the number of queen honeybees moved from NI to GB is not collected.
NI officials have shared intelligence that since 2021 they have received increased numbers of queen honey bee imports into NI while the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit has recorded fewer imports of queen honey bees into GB.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a mandatory registration scheme for all marine vessels to combat the problem of abandoned boats on rivers, estuaries and the shoreline.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is leading an action under the second OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels. The Government commissioned the environmental consultancy Resource Futures to undertake research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This research will inform further OSPAR action, including the development of best practice guidance.
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 are taking to ensure that queen honeybees imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland are free from pests and diseases, in particular the small hive beetle.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests, including small hive beetle, and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. Imports into NI are cleared by NI officials.
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 had of the approach by European nations, in particular France, to solving the issue of abandoned and derelict boats in rivers and estuaries.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
End of life recreational vessels are recognised as a source of litter and pollution when abandoned. The UK is leading an action under the second OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter, to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels.
The Government commissioned research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This work reviewed existing good practices, including the extended producer responsibility scheme in place in France. OSPAR Contracting Parties have agreed to produce best practice guidance to inform regional and national action, based on the research commissioned. This guidance is currently under development.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce a mandatory requirement for remote electronic monitoring systems to be installed on all pelagic trawl vessels over 24 metres in length operating in English waters.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is taking a phased approach to implementing remote electronic monitoring, working first with volunteers to design and test systems before moving to mandatory implementation.
We are currently evaluating the progress of the project. Once implementation issues have been appropriately addressed, we will issue notification that mandatory requirements will be coming in, with a minimum of 24 months lead in time before mandatory requirements were introduced.
This is to ensure the fishing industry has time to adapt to the change.
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 are taking to publish a comprehensive, up to date list of fishing vessel licences, including sanctions for fisheries and labour offences, in line with principle two of the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO), acting on behalf of all UK Fisheries Authorities, publishes lists of all UK registered and licensed fishing vessels each month. This includes vessel characteristics and licence information. There is currently no requirement to publish enforcement statistics or details of sanctions relating to non-compliance with fisheries regulations and MMO does not routinely do so. It does, however, share details of specific 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.
The UK Government welcomes the broad principles underpinning the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency and continues to review the steps we can take to combat illegal fishing. We welcome the ongoing engagement with the organisations who have produced the Charter.
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 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.