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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has established that there is a basis to permit fishing at levels higher than the limits set by the Common Fisheries Policy.

Defra’s view is that fishing limits, in the form of Total Allowable Catches, need to be set in accordance with the objective of achieving the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate by 2015, where possible, and 2020 at the latest.