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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support he will make available to Plymouth fishing fleets to implement new measures to reduce porpoise and dolphin bycatch.

The Government funds Clean Catch UK which is a collaborative research programme dedicated to better monitoring, reducing, and, where possible, eliminating bycatch of sensitive species in UK fisheries. We are taking a risk-based approach to implementing this, focussing on fisheries which experience the highest rates of bycatch in the first instance.

Clean Catch UK is supported by a National Steering Group which provides advice to Defra on bycatch monitoring and mitigation. We would encourage representatives from Plymouth fishing fleets to engage in this group and to use the resources which can be found at https://www.cleancatchuk.com/.