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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times fisheries patrol vessels boarded and inspected UK registered fisheries vessels in each year between 2018 to 2022 inclusive.

Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter, and each Devolved Administration is responsible for conducting inspections on vessels in their respective zones. Within England, the ten Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authorities are responsible for compliance and enforcement within inshore waters (0-6 nautical miles (nm)) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for control and enforcement of third country vessels and all UK vessels fishing outside of 6nms. There is no fishing allowed by foreign vessels inside 6nms.

The number of inspections by MMO patrol vessels of EU vessels at sea in English waters by year are:

2018: 96

2019: 303

2020: 122

2021: 303

2022: 280

The number of inspections by MMO patrol vessels of UK vessels at sea in English waters by year are:

2018: 94

2019: 245

2020: 135

2021: 248

2022: 304