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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the Environment Agency’s ability to carry out the management of salmon stocks as a result of recent reductions in funding levels.

The Environment Agency (EA), like the rest of the public sector, is playing its part in reducing the national deficit and delivering more with less. Both Defra and the EA recognise the challenges that reduced funding bring and the EA is adapting its approach accordingly.

In 2015/16, the EA launched a new approach to partnership working to help it deliver more effectively and efficiently. Its 5 Point Approach to Salmon management (published in 2016), is a good example of how it is working with like-minded organisations to deliver shared priorities.