Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how UK fisheries will be managed after 30 March 2019; whether UK fisheries will be managed out to the Exclusive Economic Zone median line; and whether the UK will apply different rules to the area between the territorial sea and the Exclusive Economic Zone.

When the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019, we will be leaving the Common Fisheries Policy. The UK will become an independent Coastal State and will be fully responsible, under international law, for control of our Exclusive Economic Zone and for management of fisheries resources within it. We will also have obligations to cooperate with the EU and other coastal states to manage shared stocks.

Decisions on the precise rules that will apply to the area between the territorial sea and the Exclusive Economic Zone have yet to be determined. However, the Government is clear that we want to be a responsible Coastal State and to have a cooperative relationship with the EU and other Coastal States to ensure the sustainable management of fish stocks.