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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to consult Parliament on the future direction of UK fisheries management before publishing the final Joint Fisheries Statement in November 2022.

The Fisheries Act 2020 requires each fisheries policy authority to lay a copy of the Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) consultation draft before the appropriate legislature. This requirement was met on 17 January 2022. In parallel, the JFS was published for public consultation on 18 January.

Both parliamentary scrutiny and the consultation process concluded on 12 April. However, owing to the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Assembly, scrutiny in Northern Ireland concluded on 25 March. Between now and November, we will be amending the JFS draft. During this time, Ministers remain open to engaging with Parliamentarians in the process to finalise the JFS.