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 introducing (a) provenance and (b) tax tests to prevent vessels with foreign owners from flying a UK flag of convenience when commercial fishing in UK waters.

The Government is not considering the introduction of provenance and tax tests on owners of British fishing boats. These vessels are already required to provide genuine economic benefits to the UK through the economic link licence conditions.