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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff are employed by the Marine Management Organisation to carry out (a) catch certificate verifications and (b) refusals for seafood consignment imports to the UK; and whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of staffing levels to ensure effective oversight of high-risk seafood imports.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Port Health Authority (PHA) are the competent authorities for the purposes of the Sea Fishing (Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) Order 2009. PHAs are responsible for receiving and checking catch certificates and other supplementary IUU documents that accompany consignments of fishery products at the UK border and have the power to stop and detain consignments for further investigation and refuse imports where necessary. There is a total of 28 PHAs that receive fishery products from the EU and the rest of the world, each of which assess their own resource requirements.

MMO's IUU Team comprises of 10 FTE who provide advice and training to PHAs on the UK’s IUU Regulation for importation and are the conduit for further information needed on an import through formal verification between the PHAs and 3rd country authorities.