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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the covid-19 Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme (DSSS), how many people sat on the panel that determined who received the DSSS grants; how the industry representatives on the panel, that were appointed by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to determine who should receive funding, were chosen by the MMO; and what the scoring process and weighting was that was used to determine who should receive funding through the DSSS grant scheme.

The Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme is administered by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) on behalf of Defra.

The panel included eight individuals representing Defra, Seafish, the MMO and representatives from key industry stakeholder groups from the fishing industry, on the basis of their experience and expertise of the seafood industry in England and grant funding procedures.

Applications were assessed against the published scheme criteria.