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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of precedents for unilateral environmental measures in trade agreements on the sandeel fishing ban within the Trade and Cooperation Agreement arbitration process.

The arbitration process pertaining to the dispute brought by the EU against the UK prohibition of fishing for sandeel, and our consideration of the issues, is presently ongoing. We will fully consider the tribunal’s report and the impacts of it in due course.