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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward proposals to support smaller scale fleets in the UK by allocating fishing rights according to social and ecological criteria; and if he will make a statement.

We have taken measures in recent years to improve the economic viability of the inshore fleet by awarding uplift quota to support the landing obligation, permanently realigning quota from Producer Organisations to the inshore fleet. We have also addressed latent capacity through a capping exercise to provide greater certainty to those actively fishing in the inshore fleet. We will continue to review our allocation policy to promote sustainable fishing.