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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what performance indicators are in place to monitor and assess the performance of his Department and its agencies in assisting the English fishing and seafood industries during the covid-19 outbreak.

Assistance tailored specifically to the English fishing and seafood industries has been provided to during the COVID-19 outbreak through the Fisheries Response Fund and the Direct Seafood Sales Scheme.

The objectives of these interventions are to: preserve productive capacity in the seafood sector; ensure firms cope with the short-term shock caused by COVID-19; ensure that fishing, aquaculture and fish processing provide a source of protein; and allow important globalised food supply chains to continue during the outbreak.

Progress toward these objectives will be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively as part of an independent evaluation, which Defra and MMO are commissioning. The evaluation will also assess the performance of Defra and the MMO, and it will be externally peer reviewed before it is published.

As of 2 June, the MMO has made 1,152 payments to the catching sector, amounting to 98% of the 1,175 fishers that have applied to the Fisheries Response Fund. Of the 79 aquaculture businesses invited to apply, 75 have received funds, which is 95% of the total.

Defra has also implemented a variety of non-legislative measures to support the fishing industry. These include new guidance and reduced registration times to support fishermen to sell directly to customers and working with Seafish to enhance the marketing of domestically caught species.

A number of schemes are available to support fisheries and aquaculture businesses and a summary can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/an-update-from-tom-mccormack-ceo-marine-management-organisation.