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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her department has made of the potential impact of increasing fuel costs on the fishing sector.

We have assessed that high fuel prices are having different impacts on the fleet, with some benefitting from higher prices for their catch. Generally, the more fuel intensive parts of the fleet such as trawlers and dredgers are most likely to be vulnerable to the increased fuel costs. Inshore vessels, whilst being affected, tend to be less vulnerable to fuel price increase although our data is less reliable. There are also regional differences in fuel prices and we continue to monitor the situation.