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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to incorporate harvest control rules into future fisheries management plans.

Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) are evidence-based action plans ensuring stocks can be sustainably harvested. Work is being done to implement actions in the six published FMPs. Collectively, these can be considered as equivalent to the ‘harvest control rules’ for the individual fisheries. Defra published a harvest standard specification in September setting out the broad framework within which individual harvest strategies can be developed for English fisheries. Harvest standard specification for fisheries management plans in English waters - GOV.UK Harvest Control Rules require a sufficient level of data and understanding of a stock. Currently, there are some FMP stocks that they cannot apply to until there is a better evidence base.