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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) tackle the decline of freshwater fish and (b) restore freshwater habitats in the UK.

As fisheries is a devolved matter, this information relates to England only. In England, the Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for ensuring conservation and maintaining the diversity of freshwater fish and conserving their aquatic environment. In order to achieve this, last year the EA worked with over 150 partners and invested nearly £27m in fisheries projects. This work has included improving fish passage, fish stocking, river restoration and improving water quality in line with the Water Framework Directive. In total, around 15,000km of river has been protected or improved since 1995 to benefit fisheries and nature conservation.