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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will support European Commission proposals on total allowable catch quotas in 2017 for data-limited stocks at the Fisheries Council meeting in December 2016.

The UK supports the management of data-limited stocks on a case-by-case basis, informed by all available evidence including directional trends in fishing mortality, stock biomass and fishing effort. It will be on this basis that Government will consider the Commission’s proposal on fishing opportunities for 2017 for data-limited stocks.