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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of UK fishing trips and hauls were (a) accompanied by fisheries observers and (b) electronically monitored by cameras in each of the last three years.

UK fisheries observers accompanied 610 UK fishing trips in 2013, 755 in 2014 and 595 in 2015.

The number of vessels that have been electronically monitored using remote electronic monitoring (REM) equipment (which includes cameras) in each of the last three years (to and including 2016) is show in the table below.

While the number of vessels being electronically monitored is a low proportion of all UK vessels, those which are electronically monitored have a high catching capacity. For example, in 2015 some 82% of total landings by English vessels of North Sea cod were made by vessels monitored by REM equipment.