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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support young people in the fishing industry.

Defra has been working with industry to understand how best to support young people into seafood careers. This includes Defra’s UK Seafood Careers Project, co-designed with industry, which has explored the issues and challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of UK workers within the UK’s fishing industry. As part of this project, young people were invited to focus groups and workshops, to understand how to make seafood careers more attractive. The UK Seafood Careers Project is due to be published in Spring 2026.

The £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund aims to support the next generation of fishers and breathe new life into our coastal communities. In England, the scheme is still in development, and Defra is considering how the Fund could support young fishers to enter the industry.