Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will visit the Griffin Institute at Northwick Park Hospital in Brent West constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers regularly consider visits across the country to see the impact of their policy areas. Any plans to visit specific locations will be notified to the relevant Members of Parliament in advance.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make a an assessment of the effectiveness of the distribution of quota between (a) foreign and (b) domestic-owned trawlers under ten metres in the UK inshore fleet.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State determination of fishing opportunities for British fishing boats sets UK fishing quotas. This quota is only allocated to British-registered and licensed vessels. These vessels must comply with the economic link licence condition. This requires a certain amount of fish to be landed into the UK or requires the employment of UK crew or other measures which ensure that the UK benefits economically from the quota.
In recent years, quota available to the under 10 metre fleet in England has significantly increased but remains underutilised. To boost catches by the non-sector, quota licence caps have temporarily been removed, and trials exploring different quota allocation methods have been introduced.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish measures for the remaining offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) under stage (a) 3 and (b) 4 of the Marine Management Organisation's offshore MPA process.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Rotherham, on 16 September 2024, PQ 4529: It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protected seabed habitats. The department is considering next steps in the context of our domestic and international nature conservation obligations and how we support the fishing sector.
The Department is considering next steps for both stages 3 and 4 of the process.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vessels are taking part in the early adopter phase of the remote electronic monitoring rollout by having cameras installed; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of vessels taking part.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is one early adopter vessel volunteering to take part in the first fishery, over-24 metre pelagic trawlers in all English waters. Further vessels will be recruited for implementation in other fisheries.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the opening positions for each Total Allowable Catch in the (a) EU/UK bilateral and (b) EU/UK/Norway trilateral negotiations.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Due to the nature of the negotiations, it is not appropriate to publicly disclose negotiating documents detailing the UK’s opening positions. Our bilateral negotiations with the EU and our trilateral negotiations with the EU and Norway have both concluded. The written record of the bilateral and agreed record of the trilateral negotiations, including final total allowable catch limits are available on GOV.UK.