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 an assessment of the potential merits of banning all foreign supertrawlers from UK waters.

If foreign vessels were prohibited from fishing in UK waters without clear evidence of their negative impacts, we could expect reciprocal action to be taken against UK vessels.

For actions relating to the EU, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets out very clearly that measures should not be discriminatory.

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We are, however, taking a broader approach to improving the sustainability of our fisheries through our Marine Protected Area management policy and the introduction of Fisheries Management Plans.