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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many enforcement actions his Department has taken against foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in UK waters in each of the last five years.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for licensing foreign vessels to fish in English waters and for fisheries enforcement of vessels within English waters. The MMO has boarded and inspected foreign vessels at sea on 1451 occasions since the start of 2019 to the 31 October 2024. Infringements were detected during 585 of these inspections. In addition to these inspections at sea, 36 infringements by foreign vessels were detected remotely. The number of enforcement actions the MMO has taken against foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in English waters in each of the last five years is:

Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter and, as such, Fisheries Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for managing fisheries risk and conducting inspections in their respective waters.