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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the cessation of all drift net salmon fishing in 2018 on salmon stocks.

The 2014 assessment of salmon stocks showed the lowest population levels in our rivers nationally on record. In response to this ongoing decline, the Environment Agency has proposed new measures to reduce the exploitation of salmon by net fisheries.

It is estimated that these measures affecting the drift net fisheries would enable 16,000 more salmon and sea trout to return to our rivers to spawn annually, providing opportunity for future recovery of the species.