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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to rebalance inland water quotas for smaller locally-based fishing communities.

The Government regularly reviews its quota allocation policy. In recent years, it has permanently realigned unused quota from Producer Organisations to the small-scale fleet and allocated the first 100 tonnes, plus 10% of any remaining uplift in quota resulting from the introduction of the Landing Obligation, to the small-scale fleet.

These changes equate to over 1500 tonnes, or an additional £3 million worth of fish, for the small-scale fleet in 2016.