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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what process her Department uses to reallocate unused licences that allow fishing for bass.

Bass authorisations are administered by the Marine Management Organisation. They are separate to fishing vessel licences and allocated to the vessel with a track record of landing bass between 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2016. Unless approved by MMO to transfer an authorisation to another vessel under specific circumstances, bass authorisations cannot be transferred between individuals. A review of the current bass authorisation system is underway.