Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level set for the Total Allowable Catch for fish stocks of interest to the UK.
Defra has assessed the outcomes of the 2019 December EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council concerning the setting of Total Allowable Catches for 2020 for fish stock of interest to the UK. This assessment considers the direct monetary value of the negotiated outcome and sustainability in terms of the number of stocks being fished at or below their Maximum Sustainable Yield.
I provided this assessment to both the Chair of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee and the Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union on 1 April 2020.