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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to (a) improve the sustainability of the fishing industry and (b) ensure that fishing practices do not damage the biodiversity of global oceans.

The Fisheries Act’s objectives, together with their strong legal framework of the Joint Fisheries Statement and Fisheries Management Plans set out our commitment to achieving sustainable (in all senses of the word) fishing and protecting the marine environment.

Internationally, the UK is expanding and enhancing our efforts to sustainably manage fisheries, protect ecosystems and combat illegal fishing at an international scale through our engagement in Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, other international organisations such as the FAO, and directly with individual States.

The UK is championing efforts to achieve ambitious and transformative outcomes from the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) COP15 in October later this year, including targets for sustainable fishing practices, and is co-leading global efforts to ensure the adoption of a target to protect at least 30% of land and ocean globally by 2030 (the ‘30by30’ target). Importantly, the UK also supports the conclusion of negotiations on a new implementing Agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), which will have provisions that allow for the creation of MPAs in these areas, a key mechanism to deliver ‘30by30’.