Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he first became aware that UK fishers have been harvesting immature welks under the minimum landing size; and if will he make a statement.
Most whelks in the UK are found in our inshore fisheries and as such many are subject to local controls as well as national or EU restrictions. The Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) have powers in place to enforce the minimum conservation reference size for whelks. Where an offence is discovered the relevant IFCA would deal with this in line with their published compliance and enforcement strategy, which allows for a range of sanctions aimed at seeking better compliance.